The Beaver's heralded '25 Recruiting class is on the books

Recently college baseball recruiting has seen several important changes with more to come next year. I think Oregon State and college baseball programs in general will be impacted by the changes made by MLB and now being made by the NCAA. Consider these four decisions.

1. MLB reduced the number of their Minor League affiliates (Farm teams) by 40. There are now approximately 1,000 fewer professional players toiling in an MLB Organization at the Class A level or higher. Concomitant with that decision was MLB's trimming the MLB Draft from 40 to 20 rounds. That resulted in 600 players going undrafted that were free to sign free agent contracts or return to college, or accept a freshman college scholarship as opposed to being drafted in Rounds 21-40.

2. The NCAA constructed the Transfer Portal. That created roster instability as players could now shop their talents to other college programs and transfer immediately and be eligible without penalty.
With college programs filling needs and upgrading their rosters with experienced and quality transfer, the number of high school recruits has diminished. The rule was enhanced by the NCAA's initiative to allow college players to transfer as often as they like. Four schools in four years?

3. The NCAA Created NIL which allowed Booster backed" Collectives" to form and compensate players for use of their Name-Image-Likeness. The wealth of the Collectables varies widely giving some schools an opportunity to "poach" a recruit or player with a larger NIL offering. Now it is being used by some as a recruiting tool, creating a bidding war for high school recruits. Again, roster instability comes into play.

4. Next Year college programs will be able increase their scholarship offering from 11 3/4 up to a total of 34 or every player on their official roster. That will have an enormous effect on college recruiting, allowing the big-budget Athletic Departments to stockpile talent

Nine random thoughts on this OSU recruiting class:

1. ,On National Signing Day, Beaver baseball has introduced the 12 preps and 1 JuCo that will make up their 2025 recruiting class

2. It is an outstanding class that is ranked Number 14 by Rawlings Perfect Game and also Number 14 on Baseball America's TOP-25 National Classes. Prep Baseball Reports list the Beavers on their Top-10 "Classes you need to know".

3. It is the best recruiting class in the West distancing itself from strong classes at Arizona and UCLA.

4. It is an interesting regional class with student-athletes from five western states, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado and California. How do you have elite recruiting classes when you really don't recruit nationally?

5. It has 9 athletes who have pitched but 4 of them have different primary positions they play.

6. Five of the twelve prep recruits have held T0P- 100 Rankings with Rawlings-Perfect Game/ Baseball America/ Prep Baseball Report and the JC transfer is an NJCAA All American.

7. There is an abundance of home run power in this class, Based on prep and travel team performance, six members have the ability to impact a game by leaving the ball yard frequently.

8. Much to the delight of many Beaver fans, there are two LHP's in this class.

9. It's possible if not predictable, there will be JC and Portal transfers added to the class next spring.

The annual ritual - Get out the "Worry Beads"

The Beaver class has three Prep TOP-40 draft prospects in this class. Xavier Neyens, Mason Pike and Josh Proctor. The 2025 draft class overall is rated by MLB Scouts behind the bumper crop of '23 but ahead of the "thin at the top" '24 group. Early indicators point to a stronger '26 group of draft prospects. Getting the 3 OSU signees to campus could be dicey. These stats are somewhat encouraging.

1. In the 2023 Draft, 15 of the first 25 selections signed and 10 went to college. This was a strong draft, yet 40% of the T-25 opted to attend school.

2. In the 2024 Draft, only 10 of the Top-25 signed with 60% electing to attend college.

3. For those two Drafts in '23 and '24 combined, 25 of 50 signed. 50% of first rounders opted to play college baseball. Neyens could well fit this group.

4. When you analyze the combined picks falling in the 26-50 selection range, 30 of 50 chose school. The 60 % metric bears watching for Beaver fans.

5. In analyzing the 51-100 draft slots, a whopping 81% decided to play college ball. It's likely Pike and Proctor could fit in here.

Flip Flopping

Considering the amount of upheaval in college recruiting, the Beavers experienced a minimum amount of "churning" in the class with four pledges decommitting and three flipping to Oregon State.

RHP Drew Van Court decommitted in favor of TCU but recently decommitted from the Horned Frogs program, RHP River Hamilton decommitted and signed with LSU but he's rated the 20th best rated prep MLB Draft prospect and is expected to sign a professional contract next summer MLB Scouts say Hamilton is the best arm in LSU's number 1 ranked class. SS Ryan Holmes, a Perfect Game Top-100 player and mid-rounds draft prospect decommitted and signed with Duke. OF Justin Fuller recently decommitted and will not be a member of this class. On the flip-side of the coin, the Beavers "turned" three touted recruits from the Golden State, RHP Tyler Bellerose from Pepperdine, SS Josh Proctor from UCLA and LHP Trey Morris from Texas

MIA's
There are two committed OSU players from Oregon who have not been introduced and their status may have changed. Wilsonville C Mark Wiepert, and Bend RHP Fisher Barber. Both are still showing an OSU Commit pledge.