High School

Seth Hernandez projected to be first-ever right-handed high school pitcher selected No. 1 overall in MLB Draft

Andrew Nemec

Corona's Seth Hernandez is SBLive's 2024 CIF Southern Section baseball Player of the Year.
Corona's Seth Hernandez is SBLive's 2024 CIF Southern Section baseball Player of the Year. / Heston Quan

Baseball America released its "Mock Draft 2.0" this week for the 2025 MLB Draft and two of the first three picks came from the high school ranks in the West region.

At No. 1 overall, the Washington Nationals were projected to select Corona (California) right-handed pitcher Seth Hernandez..

If Hernandez were to go 1-1, he would be the first right-handed high school pitcher ever to be selected No. 1 overall, and the first high school pitcher to go first since Cathedral Catholic (Califorida) lefty Brady Aiken went No. 1 to the Houston Astros in 2014.

MLB's Jonathan Mayo broke down the possibility in detail earlier this week.

"Which begs the question: Could Hernandez, who ranked No. 5 on MLB Pipeline’s Draft Top 100 last December and is sure to move up when a new Draft 150 is unveiled later this month, be a pioneer? Might the southern California product be the very first high school right-handed pitcher to go 1-1?"

Here's what MLB.com had to say about Hernandez as a prospect:

"On the radar for quite some time, Hernandez started making it clear as a junior, when he won National High School Invitational MVP honors after tossing a complete-game shutout to help his Corona High School team win the tournament, that he’d be the top high school arm in the Class of 2025. He cemented it by showing elite stuff at summer showcase events like USA Baseball’s 18U National Training Camp and the Area Code Games."

As a junior, Hernandez was selected as the California Gatorade Player of the Year, posting a 0.62 ERA while hitting .352 with eight home runs and 34 RBI.

That latest projection continues a small, but important, rise for Hernandez, who FloBaseball projected would go No. 4 overall to the Colorado Rockies just a few weeks ago.

In also shows that, at least in Baseball America's collective mind, Hernandez sits alongside Stillwater (Oklahoma) shortstop Ethan Holliday and Florida State left-handed pitcher Jamie Arnold at the top of the board.

Hernandez is clearly a special talent.

If Baseball America's mock draft is right, he'll immediately become an historic one.

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Andrew Nemec
ANDREW NEMEC

Andrew Nemec covers national high school recruiting and brings more than a decade of experience. Andrew hosts "Recruiting with Andrew Nemec" on ESPN-affiliate 1080 The FAN in Portland, Oregon. He holds a journalism degree from the University of Oregon.

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