ATLANTA — The Washington Nationals, fresh off a major organizational shakeup, made a surprising selection with the No. 1 overall pick on Sunday, drafting high school shortstop Eli Willits.
The Nationals had been widely expected to take either Ethan Holliday, another high school infielder, or LSU left-hander Kade Anderson but went with Willits because they considered him “the best hitter in the draft and the best fielder in the draft,” interim general manager Mike DeBartolo said.
“It made this very easy for us.”
The Los Angeles Angels selected Tyler Bremner, a 6-foot-2 right-hander from UC Santa Barbara, with the No. 2 overall pick, which represented their first top-five pick since 1997. Anderson went to the Seattle Mariners with the No. 3 pick, while Holliday, the son of former outfielder Matt Holliday and brother of current Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday, went to the Colorado Rockies at No. 4.
Tennessee left-hander Liam Doyle went to the St. Louis Cardinals at No. 5; right-hander Seth Hernandez, the Gatorade National Player of the Year while starring for Corona High School in California, went to the Pittsburgh Pirates at No. 6; and Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette went to the Miami Marlins at No. 7.
The next three picks were high-school shortstops, highlighting a major strength of this draft: JoJo Parker (eighth to the Toronto Blue Jays), Steele Hall (ninth to the Cincinnati Reds) and Billy Carlson (10th to the Chicago White Sox).
Willits, who doesn’t turn 18 until December 9, led Fort Cobb-Broxton High School in Oklahoma to its third straight state title this past season and had previously committed to Oklahoma. A 6-foot-1 switch-hitter, Willits is hailed for his bat-to-ball skills and plate discipline and is considered a strong defensive shortstop. At 17 years and 216 days old, he is the youngest player taken No. 1 overall since the Mariners took Ken Griffey Jr. in 1987.
“He makes the routine plays about as easy as anybody you can see, much less a 17-year-old,” Nationals vice president of amateur scouting Danny Haas said.
It was only a week ago that the Nationals fired general manager Mike Rizzo, who was in his 17th year atop baseball operations and had a big hand in selecting Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in the other times the team drafted No. 1 overall — in 2009 and 2010, respectively. Nationals manager Davey Martinez was also fired last week.
Willits has drawn comparisons to current New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe. He won’t hit for a lot of power, but he has the potential to be someone who routinely hits 20 home runs and steals 20 bases at a premium position. Slot value for the No. 1 pick is a record $11,075,900 this year.
“I feel like I have good hitability and I’m going to take that to the next level,” Willits said when asked about his strengths. “And I feel like my power is up and coming, but I needed to get into an organization like the Nationals that can help develop that and take that to the next level.”
Bremnar sits at 93 to 96 mph with his fastball, while also boasting a changeup and slider, and posted a 3.49 ERA with a Big West-leading 111 strikeouts in 77â…“ innings this season. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him as the 18th-best prospect heading into the draft, behind six other pitchers. His selection came a month after his mother died of breast cancer.
“I know she’s out there watching, and in a weird way, I went to the Angels,” Bremner said. “It’s weird how life works. So it’s a special moment for sure.”
Anderson was named Most Outstanding Player at this year’s College World Series, winning both of his starts and posting a 0.56 ERA while leading the LSU Tigers to their second championship in three years. Prior to that, he led Division I with 180 strikeouts and 119 innings and was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, following in the success of former LSU Tiger and 2023 No. 1 pick Paul Skenes.
Holliday, the Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year, batted .611 with 19 homers, a 1.295 slugging percentage and a 2.038 OPS in his senior year at Stillwater High School in Oklahoma.
Holliday projects to play either shortstop or third base, and he’ll be doing it for the same organization that drafted his father, Matt, in the seventh round in 1998. Matt Holliday made three All-Star teams with the Rockies in the 2000s. His son is now the first top-five pick ever to be drafted by the same team his father played on. Ethan and Jackson Holliday are the third set of brothers to each go within the top 10, joining B.J. and Justin Upton and Dmitri and Delmon Young.
“I’m super thankful for this opportunity,” Ethan Holliday told ESPN. “The Rockies are an incredible organization with which my family is very familiar, so I’m super juiced.”
After the selection, Colorado posted a photo of Holliday as a child with the caption “Meant to be.”
Meant to be 💜 pic.twitter.com/Ua1T5h3xT6
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 13, 2025
This top of this year’s draft was unusual for several reasons. It marked the first time in 13 years that only one college hitter (Arquette) was selected within the top 10, one year after seven college hitters were taken in that range. Six of the first 10 in 2025 were high-school players, the first time that had occurred since 2002. And when the Tampa Bay Rays chose Daniel Pierce 14th overall, it marked the ninth shortstop selected.
Before this year, there had never been more than five shortstops taken within the first 15 picks of the draft, according to ESPN Research. No outfielders were taken within the first 15 picks, marking only the third time that had ever happened. Hernandez and Carlson became the first high-school teammates ever to be selected in the top 10 in the same draft. In a few years, Hernandez, who had a .300/.371/.590 slash line in 33 games as a hitter and a 0.39 ERA in 53â…“ innings as a pitcher, could join a Pirates rotation alongside Skenes and Jared Jones.
Florida State lefty Jamie Arnold was ranked fifth by McDaniel heading into the draft and fell to the Athletics at No. 11. Kyson Witherspoon, a right-hander from Oklahoma, was ranked 10th by ESPN and went to the Boston Red Sox with the No. 15 pick. The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, took a flyer on Ethan Conrad, the Wake Forest right fielder who was projected for the end of the first round, at best, after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery in March. He instead went 17th overall.
