Blue Jays Projected First-Round Pick Leaves Bad Final College Impression

It’s still possible that one game won’t deter the Toronto Blue Jays from selecting this SEC pitcher in the first round in July.

May 21, 2025; Hoover, AL, USA; Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon (26) pitches against Georgia in the second round of the SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met. | Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

MLB teams, including the Toronto Blue Jays, will look at a player’s entire body of work and not one moment when evaluating them for the draft.

But, if one is the player, they always want to leave a final, lasting impression.

Well, Oklahoma pitcher Kyson Witherspoon did exactly the opposite last weekend in the NCAA Tournament.

Playing for the national power, Witherspoon’s start against North Carolina saw him allow nine runs (three earned) on 10 hits over four innings.

That’s a bad way to leave things for MLB scouts. But, in MLB.com’s newest mock draft, Witherspoon still went No. 9 to the Blue Jays, as he did in a Baseball America mock draft a week ago.

Why Kyson Witherspoon Still Makes Sense for Blue Jays

The right-hander wrapped up his second season with OU with a 10-4 record and a 2.65 ERA. The ERA is an improvement over 2024, when he went 8-2 with a 3.79 ERA.

He struck out 124 and walked 23 in 2025, widening the strikeout-to-walk ratio he showed in 2024, when he struck out 86 and walked 38. Batters hit just .208 against him this season after batting .222 against him in 2024.

In other words, even after one bad game in the NCAA Tournament, his resume stands tall.

If the mock draft is any indication, he’s the fourth-best college pitcher in the draft, behind LSU’s Kade Anderson, Tennessee’s Liam Doyle and Florida State’s Jamie Arnold.

At that point, Jonathan Mayo wrote, he’s the “best college arm available in the Top 10.”

Toronto has quality pitching in the pipeline. But, per MLB Pipeline, the best arm is Trey Yesavage, who is at High-A Vancouver but rising fast. Ricky Tiedemann is working back from Tommy John surgery and could be an option for the Blue Jays this year as their No. 4 prospect. The Blue Jays’ No. 5 prospect, Jake Bloss, just had Tommy John surgery.

So, a seasoned pitching arm may be exactly what Toronto needs.

Yesavage was Toronto’s first-round pick last July. The right-hander has blown away hitters all season and is hoping to parlay a recent promotion to Vancouver into a promotion to Double-A New Hampshire at some point this season.

Toronto’s 2023 first-round pick, shortstop Arjun Nimmala, is already in Vancouver. The prep star from Strawberry Crest in Dover, Fla., is not yet 20 years old but he is considered the Blue Jays’ top overall prospect.

The Blue Jays went with pitching in back-to-back years before that. In 2022 Toronto selected left-hander Brandon Barriera out of American Heritage School in Plantation, Fla. In 2021, the Blue Jays selected right-hander Gunnar Hoglund out of Ole Miss.

In 2020 Toronto had the No. 5 overall pick, its first Top 10 pick since 2014, and selected shortstop Austin Martin out of Vanderbilt. He is now with the Minnesota Twins.

The 2025 MLB draft will be held Sunday and Monday, July 13-14, during All-Star Weekend in Atlanta.