Another Tar Heel has been drafted by an MLB organization. In Atlanta as part of the 2025 All-Star Week, the 2025 MLB Draft is happening near the new ballpark, and one of the names called was UNC catcher Luke Stevenson, by the Seattle Mariners. He was the 35th overall pick and is the 26th first-rounder in UNC Baseball history.
Stevenson came to UNC as a highly-rated ballplayer coming out of high school, and ultimately came to Carolina. This season he only hit .251, but lead the team in homers with 19, and was the MVP of the ACC Championship with two homers in the tournament that helped propel the Tar Heels to the title. He started every game for Carolina as either Catcher or Designated Hitter. He was also named first team All-ACC, and led UNC with 59 walks.
His second season was a bit of a step down from the first, where he was an All-ACC Freshman team member hitting .286, and the average fell from .282 at the end of October to the .251 where it finished this season. Still, he had a five-game hitting streak until the final game of the season against Arizona in which all the Tar Heels struggled, and the season ended one game short of back-to-back College World Series trips. He did hit five more homers in 2025 than he did in his freshman season.
Technically, Stevenson has the ability to come back to UNC, as this past season was only his sophomore year, but being selected this high means he’s likely going to accept the offer from the Mariners as it will far exceed anything he could earn by going to Carolina.
Stevenson joins several other UNC players on the path to the big leagues, and as a catcher if he can continue to show the skill he did at Carolina he should end up at the top sooner than later. The Mariners may be set at catcher currently, but time in the system could turn him into another capable player or at least a valuable asset to another organization as the Mariners look to contend.