All-state baseball player of the year, Fort Cobb-Broxton's Eli Willits, is pictured in Edmond, Okla., Friday, June 6, 2025. BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Nationals Choose Eli Willits With First Overall Pick in 2025 MLB Draft

Originally posted on Washington Nationals on SI
By Kyle Morton | Last updated Jul 13, 2025 6:14 PM ET

The Washington Nationals have made their choice with the first overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft, and it's high school shortstop Eli Willits.

Willits, a graduate of Fort Cobb-Broxton High in Oklahoma, is coming off a season in which he led the Mustangs to the OSSAA Class B state championship.

Willits now joins a Nationals pipeline that is loaded with young hitting talent already producing at the Major League level, with more on the way.

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His inclusion in the farm system adds another high-ceiling bat to an organization that already features the likes of James Wood, CJ Abrams, Dylan Crews, Brady House and Robert Hassell III, to name only a few.

The dismissal of Washington general manager Mike Rizzo cast immense league-wide uncertainty as to which direction the team would go with the pick, with many mock drafts projecting LSU pitcher Kade Anderson as the choice.

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Instead, the front office chose to go with who they saw as the best player available, adding Willits despite an organizational need on the mound.

The other likely choice was another Oklahoma prep shortstop in Ethan Holliday, the son of former MLB star Matt Holliday and the brother of current Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday.

Had Holliday been the choice, it could have set up a future in which two brothers squared off in the Beltway Series, and would have made the first duo of brothers to go first overall in the draft.

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Willits is committed to play in college at the University of Oklahoma, but now his camp and Washington's will get to work on hammering out a signing bonus to ensure that he foregoes that commitment to turn pro.

The slot value for the first overall pick this year comes in at $11,075,900.

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This article first appeared on Washington Nationals on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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