4 Up-Arrow College Hitters To Know In The 2025 MLB Draft Class
Image credit: Aiva Arquette (Mike Janes/Four Seam Images)
Last week, we scouted the top college pitchers in the 2025 class. This week, we’re doing the same for college hitters with a breakdown of some up-arrow names and a check-in on how the class’ top prospects are faring.
Below are in-depth notes on four college hitters who are creating a lot of positive noise early in the season, headlined by the top transfer from this year’s portal class, Aiva Arquette of Oregon State.
Top 200 MLB Draft Prospects
Baseball America presents our ranking of the top 200 players heading into the 2025 MLB Draft
Players are listed with their current draft rank in parenthesis and their season stats as of March 3.
Aiva Arquette, SS, Oregon State (No. 16)
.432/.542/.730, 3 HR, 2 2B, 16.7 BB%, 14.6 K%
Arquette has one of the most exciting profiles in the class. It’s extremely easy to dream on a 6-foot-5, 220-pound shortstop with the sort of raw power and bat speed he possesses. Entering the spring, showing a less aggressive approach that would help him tap into his big power more frequently was one of the key checkpoints evaluators were looking to see.
So far, so good.
While playing a competitive early season schedule with Oregon State, Arquette has gone 16-for-37 (.432) with three home runs, two doubles, more walks (8) than strikeouts and just a single multi-strikeout (7) game. Hitting in the two-hole between fellow top-two-round talents Trent Caraway and Gavin Turley, Arquette has so far cut his chase rate from 29% in 2024 to just 19% in his first 10 games this spring.
Maintaining that sort of pitch selection throughout the spring season would go a long way in showing teams he has the ability to make adjustments and is making strides as a hitter. Back in his high school days when Arquette was the top-ranked prospect out of Hawaii, he had a reputation as a glove-first player.
A majority of Arquette’s hits this year have come on pitches in the middle or outer third of the plate where he’s able to get extended. Given his long levers, it will be interesting to see how he reacts when pitchers are capable of consistently attacking him on the inner third with quality velocity. He has more than enough bat speed to handle above-average velocity—with performance against 92+ mph pitches historically to back that up—but attacking inside with intent isn’t often a strength of many college pitchers.
Arquette has played every game this season at shortstop and made his first error on Sunday when he unnecessarily rushed a lazy throw and tossed a one-hopper across the diamond to first that wasn’t handled. There’s something in the water at Oregon State because, like Travis Bazzana before him, Arquette seems to prefer dropping down and throwing from a low arm slot even on plays where that doesn’t appear necessary.
Kane Kepley, OF, North Carolina (No. 49)
.366/.567/.610, 0 HR, 4 2B, 20.0 BB%, 8.3 K%
Kepley is one of the most prominent transfers in college baseball. He had big expectations after a loud fall and has stepped in as UNC’s leadoff hitter this spring with aplomb. He’s tallied hits in nine of the 12 games he’s played—including five multi-hit efforts—and has reached base safely in every game for a team-high .567 on-base percentage.
Kepley’s ability to get on base at a strong clip is a large reason why UNC currently ranks 16th among Division I teams with a 15.8% walk rate. His plate skills and contact ability were standout marks in his two seasons with Liberty. Despite facing an average fastball velocity (90.8 mph) that’s nearly two ticks higher in 2025 than his first two years of college ball (89 mph), he’s maintained his excellent zone skills and bat-to-ball ability.
Kepley’s 92% contact rate and 17% chase rate are both right in line with his career numbers with Liberty, and he’s also done a nice job spraying the ball to all fields against high-end velocity and secondaries when he’s not busy taking pitches and drawing a free pass. Kepley’s offensive profile is built around his contact and savvy eye much more than his raw power. He hasn’t yet homered this season. Instead, he’s collected four doubles and three triples on balls hit down the lines and into the gaps.
At 5-foot-8, 180 pounds with a frame that doesn’t boast much physical projection, Kepley is unlikely to develop average-or-better game power. Thankfully, he has the speed and defensive ability to stick in center field where that’s less of an issue. Kepley is one of a dozen or so players with double-digit steals already. He’s gone a perfect 11-for-11 on the bases and has turned in plus run times from home-to-first.
RJ Austin, OF, Vanderbilt (No. 55)
.413/.534/.674, 1 HR, 3 2B, 15.5 BB%, 15.5 K%
The big move for Austin in 2025 has been going from the team’s primary first baseman to its everyday center fielder. Ten of the 12 games Austin has played so far have come in center field, with two games in left. He has the athleticism and plus speed for the position and has looked the part in his routine chances early this season, including a few nice in-between plays at the wall and tracking straight back over his head for good measure.
Austin’s arm action is compact and a bit unconventional for an outfielder, perhaps thanks to his previous time spent as an infielder. He has solid arm speed and strength, but his arm might be better suited for left than right if he’s not able to stick in center.
Offensively, Austin has been excellent in his first 12 games. He leads off for Vanderbilt, began the season on a seven-game hit streak and has as many walks (9) as strikeouts (9) with a homer, three doubles and three triples to go with eight stolen bases. He’s improved his approach year-over-year with Vanderbilt, and it looks like he could be doing that once again in 2025.
Austin’s contact ability against sliders has been a positive sign through his first 12 games. In 2023 and 2024, he swung and missed at sliders at a 29% clip. That’s down to just 12% so far in 2025, though his real challenge will come once he’s regularly facing breaking balls from SEC pitchers.
There’s no obvious change I can see with his setup and swing. Austin has a loose and athletic operation in the box that features some moving parts that look a bit unorthodox at times. He has a big leg kick and step-in-the-bucket lower-half action that coincides with a significant hand hitch in his upper half. One or both of those might be cleaned up in the future, but it’s worked just fine for him so far, and he’s never had huge strikeout questions (his 17.1% strikeout rate in 2023 is his career high).
Gavin Kilen, 2B, Tennessee (No. 58)
.486/.615/1.270, 7 HR, 2 2B, 25.0 BB%, 3.8 K%
Kilen’s white-hot week three makes him arguably the most impressive Division I hitter in the country. The Tennessee second baseman was named the SEC’s player of the week after he went 11-for-18 (.611) with five home runs, including back-to-back two-homer games at the Astros Foundation College Classic. After just 11 games, Kilen is only two home runs shy of his 2024 season total (and career best) of nine.
The power surge is surprising for scouts who expected to see a steady player with solid-ish tools across the board and an offensive package built more on contact than pop. Prior to this spring, Kilen homered just nine times in 402 plate appearances with Louisville (2.2% HR/PA rate) and hit just two home runs in 215 plate appearances with a wood bat in the Cape Cod League (0.9% HR/PA rate). At the moment, he has seven home runs in 52 plate appearances—good for a 13.5% HR/PA rate that blows his previous power numbers out of the water.
Kilen is listed at 187 pounds this spring compared to an 180-pound listing in 2024. His setup and swing at the plate look fairly similar to his Louisville swing from a year ago, with perhaps a tick more hand speed and intent via video. Kilen’s physicality and raw power are much different from 2024 Tennessee second baseman Christian Moore, who started in a similar spot to Kilen on last year’s board and ultimately pushed his way into the eighth overall pick.
Moore entered his draft year with 10- and 17-homer seasons already under his belt, so after cutting his strikeout rate as a junior, his 34-homer campaign wasn’t shocking. He’d always flashed the raw power before. Kilen’s game is more well-rounded with fewer holes but less juice. He’s never struck out more than a 9.4% clip, he defends second base at a solid level and projects to stick on the dirt in pro ball fairly safely.
If scouts view his uptick in power as a material change in his profile and not some illusion of the current hot-bat environment of college baseball, it would be easy to see him going in the supplemental first-round range similar to Griff O’Ferrall (32nd, Orioles) and Kyle DeBarge (33rd, Twins).
