Day one of the 2025 Major League Baseball draft is now complete. The first day consisted of the first three rounds, with rounds 4-20 coming tomorrow. The Cincinnati Reds only had three picks on the first day and they used them to pick a high school shortstop, a high school pitcher, and a college pitcher.
1st Round: Steele Hall – Shortstop
Steele Hall was the Reds pick in the 1st round. Cincinnati took the shortstop out of Hewitt-Trussville High School in Alabama with the 9th overall pick in the draft. As we wrote in the article about him earlier when the selection was made, he’s a big time athlete with the potential to be an All-Star caliber player who can contribute in just about every way a position player can. The Reds were impressed this past season as he looked better every time they saw him and they believe that given his age – he was originally in the 2026 draft class, but graduated high school a year early to be eligible for this year’s draft – that he can carry that forward and that if he hadn’t graduated a year early he could have potentially been the top pick in next year’s draft.
2nd Round: Aaron Watson – RHP
With their second pick of the night the Reds stuck with a high school player. This time around they selected Aaron Watson out of Trinity Christian Academy in Florida.
The 6′ 5″ and 205 lb. right-handed starter has plenty of projection as he fills out his frame. The hope is that when that happens he can add some velocity to his fastball, which currently works in the low 90’s and has been up to 96. He pairs his 2-seam fastball with a 4-seamer, a slider, a curveball, and a splitter. His slider is the best pitch and rates out as above-average, while the other two secondary offerings are more average.
He’s got good pitchability and good control. His ceiling likely depends on if he can add velocity and how much. Without picking up something on his fastball he profiles more as a back end starter, but things get better from there if the velocity increases over the next few years.
3rd Round: Mason Morris – RHP
Cincinnati went with a college pitcher with their final pick of day one. Mason Morris pitched out of the bullpen at Ole Miss during each of his three seasons there. The first two seasons did not go well.
His third season he looked like a completely different pitcher as his ERA dropped from 6.55 in 2024 to 3.29 this year. He changed his arm angle, picked up significant velocity, threw more strikes, and added a new pitch which became his best offering. Some teams think he might profile as a starter. If he does wind up in the bullpen his upper 90’s fastball and plus cutter in the low 90’s will pair well with his slider.
Looking towards Day 2 of the Draft
The remaining 17 rounds of the draft will take place on Monday, starting at 11:30am. Over at RedsMinorLeagues.com we will have full coverage throughout the day if you are looking to follow along or even just check in from time to time throughout the day. You can listen to the conference call for all of the picks on MLB.com throughout the day.
On the second day of the draft the Reds will probably select 14 or 15 players who will eventually sign. Expect every player taken in the top 10 rounds to sign because the teams lose that player’s slot value if they don’t, so organizations only draft players in those rounds that they are pretty certain will sign.
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