7 Fun Mid-Major Pitchers To Know For The 2025 MLB Draft

These smaller school names look like fun options for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Apr 09, 2025

Written by: Nick Stevens

This week’s 2025 MLB Draft notebook piece is a little different from each weekly piece up to this point. Instead of focusing on three or four series, I’ve picked out 7 mid-major pitchers who have been climbing up boards or entered the year respectfully ranked on multiple, early national ranking lists.

These 7 mid-major arms have the stuff to be intriguing targets in this year’s draft. Here’s what I saw as I watched each of them this past weekend.

RHP Trace Phillips: Middle Tennessee State

Phillips is a 6’3”/185 pound right-handed pitcher and first baseman. The draft-eligible sophomore logged 13 home runs last season with a .907 OPS and posted a 7.13 ERA across 41 IP with 13% strikeout rate and 9% walk rate.

Reports out of Middle Tennessee highlighted his standout fall performance which has translated into more success on the mound this season. He’s mostly dropped hitting and is focusing more on pitching, with consensus opinion seeming to be there’s plenty more in the tank for Phillips once he completely drops hitting and puts all of his attention to pitching, with the help of a pro development organization.

His fastball now sits 93-95 mph and has touched 97 mph (added 10 pounds last offseason), with belief that he can routinely get to 100 mph down the road. There’s also a mid-80’s slider, a changeup with tumble, fade, and big velo separation from his fastball. He also throws a big bender that he uses more as a get-me-over pitcher to grab a quick strike.

Phillips didn’t pitch this weekend due to a stiff back, so I went back and watched his last outing against Florida International to get a look.

It’s easy to see the potential with Phillips. His fastball didn’t get a ton of swing-and-miss and wasn’t particularly effective low in the zone, but was able to get a few whiffs and produce some weak contact when he commanded up in the zone. The slider was his primary weapon. The sharp breaking slider was able to keep hitters pounded it into the ground. With a quality defense behind him, Phillips cruises through at least five innings with minimal damage against him. The only real mistake was a hanging slider in the 4th inning that led to a few runs, followed by a hanging changeup to the next batter.

You can see his stuff from early on this season below. Video from @prospectdugout on X.

RHP Drew Horn: Middle Tennessee State

Another draft-eligible sophomore, Horn transferred in from Walters State Community College and is having a fantastic season for MTSU. Listed at 5’11” and 180 pounds, Horn owns a 1.57 ERA with a 33.6% strikeout rate through 34.1 IP. The one negative is the 14.7% walk rate. Nearly 60% of his walks have come in two outings.

Horn does have no-hitter on his resume this year, going 9 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 13 K against Oakland back on March 9th.

Despite his size, Horn can still run it up to 96 mph (sat 92-93 ph), with a slider, curve, and changeup. Horn’s slider and curve are dangerous because they both come in at around the same velo (upper-70s), but the curveball is a near 3,000 rpm pitch, giving it sharp bite with 12-6 shape. His changeup sat 82-85 mph with some flutter.

Horn’s line against Liberty this past weekend: 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5K. Outside of the walks, it was a very good outing against a very good Liberty team. It seemed to be the slider that gave Horn the most fits, as he was largely unable to command the offering.

He may not have as high of a ceiling as his teammate, Trace Phillips, but I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see a team be aggressive in going after the draft-eligible arm this summer.

LHP Ben Moore: Old Dominion University

Was Ben Moore able to get a sneak peek at what it’s like to pitch in the Orioles system this past weekend? Moore took on one of the top teams in the country in Troy at Harbor Park, home of the Norfolk Tides, this past weekend. I highlighted this Troy lineup with quality MLB talent a few weeks ago, so to see Ben Moore pitch very well against this lineup is a great sign.

Moore is 6’4” lefty who spent the last two years dominating out of ODU’s bullpen, but he’s transitioned to the Monarch’s Friday night arm this season. His fastball sits 93-94 mph but has touched 98 mph, with a mid-80s slider that shows multiple shapes, and a low-80s changeup. He’s been mainly a fastball/slider reliever but has worked on developing a third and fourth offering. Multiple public reports express confidence in Moore being able to develop a full starter’s repertoire.

He’s close to reaching a new career-high in innings pitched (37 IP), so it will be interesting to see how he holds up down the stretch as Sun Belt play intensifies. Thus far, Moore’s strikeout rate is down to 21% with an 11% walk rate, but tough outings against Auburn and Southern Miss have heavily impacted his overall stat line.

Moore started the season with a 4.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K outing against a very talented Georgia Tech team, which opened a lot of eyes to his potential impact as a starter. This past Friday at Harbor Park against a potent Troy lineup, Moore went 4 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K.

Moore will be here in my town on May 9th as ODU comes to Harrisonburg. Perfect timing to see how his stuff looks live when he should be above the 50 IP mark, well above his career-high.

RHP Dylan Story: High Point University

A prime example of making sure you pay attention to the stuff, not the stats, especially with these smaller school guys.

Story is a 6’1”/220 pound righty who transferred in from Wingate this season. Another draft-eligible sophomore, Story has made 8 starts this season, posting a 6.10 ERA with a 4.82 FIP, 15% strikeout rate, and a 10% walk rate through 41 IP.

Story and this High Point team have received very high praise this season, with evaluators calling Story a true Friday night arm with big time stuff. His fastball can touch 97 mph (97.1 mph in fall ball), sits 90-94 mph, with a high-velo sweeper and changeup with big time extension. Story’s fastball comes from a lower release and plays very well at the top of the zone, despite the lack of swing and miss presently. He’s also been a workhorse, regularly getting above, or at least very close to, 100 pitches per outing.

Story did produce 6 punchouts over the weekend against USC-Upstate, while walking just 2. Much of the damage against him came from groundballs hit right up the middle, not particularly hard. His slider was a beauty

When you’re talking about moldable clay with fun traits that a pro team could work with and turn into a potential Top 30 starting pitching prospect in your system, Story is that.

RHP Michael Lombardi: Tulane

The Tulane-Baltimore pipeline has been active over the last few years, with guys like Keagan Gillies, Hudson Haskin, and Collin Burnes all being drafted by the Orioles out of Tulane recently. Could Michael Lombardi be next?

Lombardi is a 6’3”/200 pound reliever who sits 91-94 mph (18+ inches of IVB) and tops out at 96 mph. He also throws a changeup and a high-70s, 12-6 curveball with 17 inches of break. He’s another two-way talent who has an OPS over .800 this season with 7 doubles/3 HR and more walks than strikeouts, but the arm talent is what stands out.

Per Joe Doyle over at Future Stars Series.com, Doyle believes Lombardi is the top reliever-to-starter draft talent in this year’s draft class, and we know how much the Baltimore Orioles LOVE taking college relievers and turning them into quality starting pitching prospects.

Lombardi had two outings against Rice last weekend, throwing 2 scoreless frames with no walks and 5 strikeouts, picking up his 8th save of the season. On the year, Lombardi has posted a 0.50 ERA (!!) with a 52% strikeout rate (!!!!) and an 8% walk rate.

Good god, man.

You can see the massive curveball below. If a team can unlock his starting potential, he could be a fantastic find in this year’s class.

RHP Cameron Keshock: Samford

The Orioles just nabbed 6’6” RHP Jacob Cravey out of Samford last year and while his first run through Delmarva left something to be desired, he’s off to a strong start in 2025. If the Orioles want to take another tall project arm out of Samford, Cameron Keshock could be their guy.

A bit of a model darling, Keshock started his career at Auburn, but was unable to force his way onto the mound in two seasons. He’s now in the weekend rotation at Samford. Standing 6’7” and weighing 225 pounds, Keshock is yet another draft-eligible sophomore who has gotten his walk rate under 10%, but his strikeout rate is hovering just 20%.

Conference play hasn’t been too kind to Keshock, but he did face off against the top-seeded Tennessee Volunteers earlier this year and posted quite the line: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 1 K. Tennessee’s lineup, which I looked at just the other week, is loaded with top-end MLB talent, so while the strikeouts weren’t there for Keshock in this outing, to limit the Volunteers to just 3 hits across 5 IP is mightily impressive.

Keshock is primarily sinker/slider/changeup. He can run the sinker up to 96 mph with fun release traits. You can see the easy, low-effort delivery in the video below, a nice swing and miss on an 87 mph changeup.

I really think Keshock is a name you hear more and more as the draft approaches. In watching three of his outings now, there’s always a gaggle of scouts behind home plate watching intently.

RHP Dominick Reid: Abilene Christian

Reid originally began his college career at Oklahoma State where a good season in the Northwoods League after his freshman season set him up well for a short but effective sophomore season- 15 IP, 33% strikeout rate.

He’s now at Abilene Christian where he’s averaging the slightest of ticks below 6 IP per start through 8 starts, with a 30% strikeout rate and a solid 8% walk rate. He has a 15 K performance under his belt this season against Prairie View A&M. Regardless of who it was against, that’s impressive. He has also excelled against competitive lineups, allowing 3 R across 7 IP against Grand Canyon, for example.

Reid is up to 95 mph on the mound, with a four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter, breaking ball, and changeup that has plus future value grades on it. To reference Joe Doyle again, Doyle recently noted that Reid’s fastball whiff/chase/velo/strikeout rate are all in a tier that stands above the rest of the country. Within that tier, lies just Reid and Tennessee’s Liam Doyle. Pretty impressive company. You can see the breaking ball in action below.

Reid struck out 8 across 6.1 IP this past weekend against Sacramento State. It was rainy, but that didn’t hinder Reid’s command. If he’s going to continue spotting his fastball as he did for the most part in this outing, he’s going to be an uber-intriguing prospect in the pros and should fit firmly on a starter’s track.

Previous draft notebooks:

Orioles On the Verge Substack

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