Indiana Baseball MLB Draft Recap: 4 Hoosiers, 2 Recruits Selected

Indiana baseball outfielder Devin Taylor fell five picks shy of being the program's first opening-round MLB Draft selection since Kyle Schwarber in 2014, but Taylor made one final piece of Hoosier history Sunday night.

The Athletics drafted Taylor at No. 48 overall in the second round, making the Cincinnati native the highest-drafted outfielder in Indiana history. Matt Gorski, selected 57th overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2019, previously held the mark.

Taylor was the first of four active Hoosiers selected in the 2025 MLB Draft, which occurred Sunday and Monday in Atlanta.

The Seattle Mariners selected redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson in the fifth round, and redshirt senior pitchers Cole Gilley and Ben Grable were chosen in the 10th and 11th round, respectively. Gilley is joining the Philadelphia Phillies, while Grable will head to the New York Yankees.

In addition to the quartet of selections from Indiana's 2025 roster, two of the Hoosiers' high school signees heard their names called Monday.

Right-handed pitcher Matthew Fisher, an Evansville native tabbed as the Indiana Gatorade Player of the Year this summer, went in the seventh round to the Phillies. Fisher was MLB.com's 46th-ranked player entering the draft. The Athletics landed left-handed pitcher Alex Barr in the 12th round.

Fisher and Barr have until July 30 to decide whether they'll sign their professional contracts or play for the Hoosiers next season.

The decision is much easier for Taylor, who has one year of eligibility remaining but went at a slot with a projected signing value of $2.03 million -- and the Athletics believe he'll be worth every penny.

"For us, one of the best college hitters in the Draft," A's scouting director Eric Kubota said, via MLB.com. "He performed at a very high level at Indiana. Power, average, low strikeouts. For the kind of hitter he is, there was just not a lot to not like about him.

"He slid a little bit because his defense may lag a little bit behind his offense right now, but we think there’s an athlete there that, with a little attention to the defense, we feel that will be very adequate as well."

Taylor, who left Indiana as the program's all-time leader in home runs with 54, is the highest-drafted player in head coach Jeff Mercer's 12 collective years on the top step of college dugouts. Taylor capped his college career with a .350 batting average, 191 runs scored and 179 RBIs. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2023 and a unanimous All-American in 2025.

Dickerson played sparingly during the first two years of his career at the University of Louisville, but he jumpstarted his professional aspirations in Bloomington.

The Hoosiers' starting center fielder in all 56 games this past season, Dickerson hit .314 with 19 home runs and 77 RBIs. He joined Taylor as a first-team All-Big Ten selection by the conference's head coaches.

Gilley, meanwhile, earned second-team All-Big Ten honors after compiling a 10-3 record and boasting a 3.54 earned-run average. Grable, who missed all of the 2024 season due to an injury, went 4-3 across 56.1 innings pitched in 2025. He finished with a 4.31 ERA, and opposing hitters batted just .244 against the Northwestern transfer.

Indiana, which had six players selected in 2024, has notched back-to-back years with at least four draft picks for the first time since 2018 and 2019. Since Mercer's first season in 2019, the Hoosiers have produced 30 total selections.