by The Red Sox added plenty of intriguing prospects to their pipeline during the 2025 MLB Draft — headlined by a few Day 1 picks that included
one of the top collegiate pitchers available in righty Kyson Witherspoon.
With the 33rd overall pick — acquired by Boston in the trade with the Brewers involving Quinn Priester — the Red Sox selected another college arm in right-handed starter Marcus Phillips out of the University of Tennessee.
Given Boston’s need to add more high-end pitching to their organization — coupled with the potential for both Witherspoon and Phillips to make a push for big-league reps in the next few years — former MLB GM Jim Bowden tabbed the Red Sox as one of his “winners” after Day 1 of the draft.
“Witherspoon and Phillips should be relatively quick to the majors,”
Bowden wrote in
The Athletic
. “And, with the Red Sox’s strong pitching coach and analytics staff, both have large runways to improve over the next couple of years. Boston finished off its solid Day 1 by taking infielder Henry Godbout out of Virginia at No. 75 and right-hander Anthony Eyanson out of LSU at No. 87.”
Bowden was far from the only MLB pundit to dole out plenty of praise toward the Red Sox after the first day of the MLB Draft.
USA Today
and
CBS Sports
both gave Boston an “A” grade after Day 1 of the draft, with CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson projecting Witherspoon as a strong value add for a Red Sox team in need of proven pitching in the coming years.
“I had Witherspoon as the top-ranked righty in the class — blame it on [Tyler] Bremner’s uneven year and Gage Wood’s shoulder injury,” Anderson wrote. “He has a deceptively short arm stroke that he uses to chuck a full arsenal, including mid-to-upper-90s fastballs and three breaking pitches (slider, curve, and cutter). This is a good value at pick 15.”
Former Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd also had high praise for Witherspoon on MLB Network shortly after Boston selected him with the 15th pick in the draft.
“This guy has more upside of anyone that’s been taken from a pitching standpoint,”
O’Dowd said.
“I think this young man is just scratching the surface of how good he can be.”
Beyond Witherspoon’s blistering fastball and diverse array of pitches, the former University of Oklahoma product projects as a starter who could rise through the ranks of the minor leagues in short order.
“College starters who saw sizable workloads like Witherspoon are typically shelved after signing to rest their arms, but more often than not, they end up moving quickly right out of the gates when they do make their minor league debuts,”
Baseball America wrote of Witherspoon.
“Depending on where he lands, Witherspoon is likely to be a pitcher who should breeze through the lower levels and land in the upper minors in the first half of 2026.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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