2025 Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List Announced

Today, USA Baseball announced the 2025 Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List. Each year, the Golden Spikes Award honors the top amateur in the nation. The award has been around since 1978 and is given to the player who shows incredible skills and sportsmanship on the field.

This year’s preseason watchlist included 55 high school and college baseball players. There were 41 total schools and 12 conferences represented. At the college level, the SEC led the pack with 17 players. The ACC came in second with 14. The Big 12 had six players, and the Big Ten had three.

Overall, out of all college players, Arizona State (Compton, Walker, and Jacobs), Texas A&M (LaViolette, Prager, Grahovac), and Virginia (Blanco, Ford, and Didawick) led teams with the most players on the list with three players each.

There is also tons of talent on this list for the 2025 MLB Draft. For college, 27 players are on the Just Baseball Top 80 College Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Out of the college talent, four were named as Golden Spikes Award finalists in 2024.

Three of them are top prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft: Jamie Arnold, Brooks Bryan, and Jace LaViolette. Weihwa Aloy, Cam Cannarella, Ethan Petry, Nolan Schubart, and Devin Taylor were also on last year’s preseason watch list. Here are the 33 players on our Draft board: