LSU’s Kade Anderson Leads Strong 2025 MLB Draft Class for Tigers

As LSU baseball prepares to welcome another NCAA Tournament regional to the state of Louisiana, there are a few players with something else on the horizon. That's not saying they're going to overlook the NCAA Tournament, because they absolutely want to win a National Championship. But after the college dust has settled, they're going to be making their way into the MLB pipeline.

The Unique MLB Draft: A Path to Professional Baseball

The 2025 MLB Draft will be held July 13th through July 15th in Atlanta, Georgia. The draft will last a full 20 rounds, but that's not because franchises need a full 20 rounds of new players. The MLB Draft is different from most American professional sports drafts.

In the MLB Draft, players can opt out of their draft selection and remain eligible for future MLB Drafts. This happens more often in the MLB Draft then the NBA or NFL Drafts that fans are more familiar with. The MLB Draft will be full of high school players, many of them will decline their MLB Draft pick and head to college. This is often due to the MLB's draft slot salary system, where each pick is assigned a maximum amount the player can receive in a contract offer.

So if a high school player feels they can increase that amount after a few years of college baseball, they can bet on themselves. Which happens a lot, meaning teams could lose a large percentage of the 20 or so picks they make in the draft, which is why there are so many rounds.

LSU's Strong Legacy in the MLB Draft

During the early rounds in this year's MLB Draft, expect to hear a few LSU names called.

Hearing an LSU player taken early in an MLB Draft isn't something new. The LSU Tigers have made a habit out of sending players to the MLB pipeline with high picks.

Last year, Tommy White was picked in the 2nd round by the Athletics, and Thatcher Hurd was taken in the 3rd round by the New York Yankees. There were 7 other Tigers taken in 2024, including Luke Holman and Gage Jump, who were both "competitive balance" picks.

The year before that was the iconic 2023 MLB Draft, where the Tigers made history, seeing Paul Skenes go #1 overall and Dylan Crews go #2 overall. Becoming the first teammates to go 1-2 in history. That draft also saw Ty Floyd, Grant Taylor, and Tre' Morgan all get taken in the first 100 picks.

Looking just a little further back, the 2022 MLB Draft had Jacob Berry selected #6 overall in the first round, followed by three other LSU Tigers in that draft.

Kade Anderson: A Top MLB Draft Prospect from LSU

This year, there's a near certainty that an LSU Tiger will be drafted in the first 5 picks of the MLB Draft. But you won't see a Tiger go #1 overall this year. How about that for threading a needle.

The LSU Tiger that will come off the board first is LHP Kade Anderson.

Anderson will have his name called at either #2 or #3 in the draft, with a small chance he drops to #4 or #5. He's currently ranked by MLB.com as the best college pitching prospect in the draft. While ESPN feels like Tennessee's Liam Doyle is a better bet at #2 overall in the draft.

But Anderson and Doyle are competing for the #2 overall pick, because #1 is already spoken for. This year will see another Holliday at the top of the draft. With Ethan Holliday of Sillwater High School set to be the top pick of the Washington Nationals. Ethan is the younger brother of Jackson Holliday, who was taken #1 overall in the 2022 MLB Draft, and is currently playing for the Baltimore Orioles. Both boys are the sons of 7-time MLB All Star Matt Holliday.

Other LSU Tigers to Watch in the MLB Draft

Anderson may not be the only player to hear his name in the first round of the MLB Draft, there's a slight chance a second Tiger could sneak in.

The second LSU player off the board will probably be RHP Anthony Eyanson.

Right now, MLB.com has Eyanson ranked as the 66th best prospect in this class, but as teams decide if they need pitching or hitting, or if they want to take a high school kid or a college player, or if they think they can even sign who they want, anyone ranked in the top 100 prospects has a decent chance of being a first round pick.

That mean Eyanson could end up being the exact type of prospect a team wants, a college pitcher who can get up to 97 MPH with his fastball. There could be a pitching coach in the top 15 picks that thinks they can work on Eyanson's mechanics and turn that into a 100+ MPH fastball. Don't be shocked if Eyanson goes in the top 30 picks.

Second baseball Daniel Dickinson finds himself in the same boat. Getting a hitter from LSU is a solid bet for MLB teams. Dickinson is a guy who just gets on base. Late this spring, he had an on-base percentage just under .500 and he did rack up 10 home runs this year. Raw power has been the biggest concern with Dickinson's hitting from the scouts, but he's proven this year in SEC play that he can put the bat on the ball, and get on base. He's a solid possibility as a late first round pick.

There are two others MLB.com has ranked in the top 100 draft prospects for this year, but they're much lower on the list. There's RHP Chase Shores ranked at #85 and first baseman Jared Jones ranked at #99. Both players will get drafted this year, without a doubt. But it probably won't be the first round.

LSU Prospects: MLB.com Rankings

Here are the MLB.com Prospect Ranks for LSU:

Kade Anderson, LHP, #3
Anthony Eyanson, RHP, #66
Daniel Dickinson, 2B, #70
Chase Shores, RHP, #85
Jared Jones, 1B, #99
Ethan Frey, OF, #180

This isn't a mock draft from MLB.com saying this is the spot where these Tigers are going to be drafted, its just pure rankings. However ESPN has put out a mock draft.

ESPN's Mock Draft Projections for LSU

The ESPN mock draft has these first round LSU picks:

#3 overall - Seattle Mariners - Kade Anderson
34 overall - Detroit Tigers - Anthony Eyanson

Again, there's a chance another Tiger gets into the first round. But with the MLB Draft being so different from the other leagues, its really hard to predict anything past the #5 pick.