2025 MLB Mock Draft: Kade Anderson jumps into No. 1 spot, Ethan Holliday remains in top 5

 The 2025 MLB Draft is a little over two weeks away. Four years ago, MLB pushed the draft back from the first week of June to the All-Star break in an effort to better market the event, and it will remain there moving forward, even though many executives don't like it. The two-day draft begins Sunday, July 13, this year.

This is the third year of MLB's draft lottery system. In the past, the draft order was the reverse order of the previous year's standings, which was nice and easy. Now picks 1-6 are assigned via lottery, picks 7-18 are the remaining non-postseason teams in the reverse order of the previous year's standings, and picks 19-30 are postseason teams in order of their playoff finish.

At 71-91, the Nationals had baseball's sixth-worst record last season, yet Washington won the lottery and moved up to the No. 1 pick. It is the third time in franchise history the Expos/Nationals have held the No. 1 selection. The first two times worked out about as well as any team could hope: Stephen Strasburg in 2009 and Bryce Harper in 2010.

The Mariners also won big on lottery day. They moved up from the No. 17 pick to No. 3. This will be Seattle's highest selection since taking Mike Zunino with the No. 3 pick in 2012. The 121-loss White Sox moved back to the No. 10 pick. They had the No. 5 pick in last year's draft and teams that pay into the revenue sharing system cannot have lottery picks in back-to-back years.

Each team is given a set bonus pool for draft spending each summer. The penalties for excessive spending are harsh enough (tax on overage, forfeit a future first rounder, etc.) that the bonus pool effectively acts as a hard cap. The bonus pools are tied to picks in the top 10 rounds, and if you sign one player to a below slot bonus, you can give the savings to another player(s).

Here are the five largest bonus pools for the 2025 MLB draft (per MLB.com):

Mariners: $17,074,400

Rays: $16,699,400

Angels: $16,656,400

Nationals: $16,597,800

Orioles: $16,513,100

Generally speaking, teams do not draft for need in the early rounds of the draft. It's difficult to predict this sport a month or two into the future. It's impossible to know what your roster needs will be two or three (or more) years down the line, when these players will be ready for the big leagues. Take the best, most talented player, and sort out the roster later.

Our first mock draft ran on June 13. Below is our second 2025 first-round mock draft, updated to reflect the latest chatter, rumors, and speculation. We'll have one last mock draft update between now and draft day.