Angels To Sign No. 2 Overall Pick Tyler Bremner
The Angels have agreed to terms on a $7,689,525 bonus with No. 2 overall draft pick Tyler Bremner, reports Carlos Collazo of Baseball America. That’s more than $2.5MM under the slot value of that second overall pick. They’ve reallocated that chunk of savings to sign over-slot deals with third-round pick Johnny Slawinski, fifth-round pick CJ Gray and 13th-round pick Xavier Mitchell, per Collazo. Slawinski signed for a $2.4975MM bonus — nearly $1.5MM over slot. Gray’s $1.2475MM bonus clocks in $728K over slot. Mitchell’s $872,500 bonus is akin to third-round money.
Bremner, 21, was a surprise pick at No. 2. The UC Santa Barbara product was widely considered a first-round talent but projected to go later down the board. The Halos tend to lean toward polished, quick-to-the-majors college players with their top picks, however, and Bremner largely fits that bill. Plus, the savings on this pick allowed them to make sizable commitments to high school picks like Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell.
Bremner’s junior season in college ball was sharp. He pitched to a 3.49 ERA, fanned 35.6% of his opponents and walked only 6.1% of the batters he faced. FanGraphs ranked him seventh in this year’s draft class, while Bremner ranked 11th at Baseball America, 16th per The Athletic’s Keith Law and 18th both at MLB.com and at ESPN. He draws praise for a mid-90s heater with good sink and a plus changeup that’s effective against both righties and lefties. The general consensus is that he needs work on his slider or perhaps the incorporation of another new pitch, but he’s viewed as a fairly likely mid-rotation arm with the upside to develop into more than that, depending on the development of a third pitch.
Each of Slawinski, Gray and Mitchell ranked within the top 118 prospects on Baseball America’s Top 500 list and within the top 178 talents at MLB.com’s top 200. All three are prep pitchers with considerable ceilings — Slawinski and Mitchell from the left side. Slawinski had been committed to Texas A&M, while Gray was committed to NC State and Mitchell to Texas.
2025 MLB Draft, First Round Results
This year’s amateur draft is officially underway, and we’ll be updating this post throughout the night with every first-round selection. More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.
Here are the first-round selections….
- Washington Nationals: Eli Willits, SS, Fort Cobb-Broxton (OK)
- Los Angeles Angels: Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC Santa Barbara
- Seattle Mariners: Kade Anderson, LHP, LSU
- Colorado Rockies: Ethan Holliday, SS, Stillwater High School (OK)
- St. Louis Cardinals: Liam Doyle, LHP, Tennessee
- Pittsburgh Pirates: Seth Hernandez, RHP, Corona High School (CA)
- Miami Marlins: Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon State
- Toronto Blue Jays: JoJo Parker, SS, Purvis High School (MS)
- Cincinnati Reds: Steele Hall, SS, Hewitt-Trussville High School (AL)
- Chicago White Sox: Billy Carlson, SS, Corona High School (CA)
- Athletics: Jamie Arnold, LHP, Florida State
- Texas Rangers: Gavin Fien, SS/3B, Great Oak High School (CA)
- San Francisco Giants: Gavin Kilen, SS/2B, Tennessee
- Tampa Bay Rays: Daniel Pierce, SS, Mill Creek High School (GA)
- Boston Red Sox: Kyson Witherspoon, RHP, Oklahoma
- Minnesota Twins: Marek Houston, SS, Wake Forest
- Chicago Cubs: Ethan Conrad, OF, Wake Forest
- Arizona Diamondbacks: Kayson Cunningham, SS, Johnson High School (TX)
- Baltimore Orioles: Ike Irish, C, Auburn
- Milwaukee Brewers: Andrew Fischer, 1B/3B, Tennessee
- Houston Astros: Xavier Neyens, SS/3B, Mount Vernon High School (WA)
- Atlanta Braves: Tate Southisene, SS, Basic High School (NV)
- Kansas City Royals: Sean Gamble, OF/2B, IMG Academy (FL)
- Detroit Tigers: Jordan Yost, SS, Sickles High School (FL)
- San Diego Padres: Kruz Schoolcraft, LHP, Sunset High School (OR)
- Philadelphia Phillies: Gage Wood, RHP, Arkansas
- Cleveland Guardians: Jace LaViolette, OF, Texas A&M
The first round officially consists of only 27 picks since the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers all had their first-round selections dropped back by 10 slots. The three teams surpassed the third luxury tax tier in 2024, and thus their punishment included a 10-slot drop in their opening draft choice.
The 2025 draft is split up over two nights. Rounds 4-20 will take place tomorrow, while the draft’s first 105 picks will come off the board tonight. Those 105 picks consist of the first three proper rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, and two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents), and the Royals getting the 28th overall pick due to the Prospect Promotion Incentive. The evening’s 105th and final selection will be a compensatory pick to the Angels for not agreeing to a deal with 81st overall pick Ryan Prager.