Nothing beats being at the ballpark in the fall for some college baseball scrimmage. My first stop was at a scrimmage between the Georgetown Hoyas and Rutgers Scarlet Knights at Capital One Park in Tysons Corner, VA. While both are smaller schools, they’ve both been sneaky programs that have produced some decent draft talent over the past couple of years.
In 2024, Georgetown's ace left-hander Everett Catlett (Colorado Rockies) was selected in the 12th round, and Rutgers had guys like Joshua Kuroda-Grauer (3rd Round, Oakland Athletics) and Donovan Zsak (8th Round, Cleveland Guardians) go in the top 10 rounds. Georgetown even had their third-rounder in the 2023 MLB Draft, Jake Bloss (Houston Astros), who has already made his major league debut and was a big piece in the Yusei Kikuchi trade. Rutgers also had a second-rounder in Ryan Lasko (Oakland Athletics) in the 2023 MLB Draft.
While Georgetown now doesn’t possess as significant an arm as it did in the past two years in Catlett and Bloss, it still had some names to watch. Rutgers was fully loaded with intriguing bats and a couple of arms worth monitoring.
2025 MLB DRAFT - RUTGERS
1B Ty Doucette
Doucette has easily catapulted himself into the top 100 bats in all of college baseball with his performance last year. He had a max EV of 112 MPH last year, and his ability to get barrel with ease is quite impressive. It was another barrel party for him against the Hoyas as hit smoked a double and homerun. Georgetown pitchers were no match for him. The only negative to Doucette’s offensive profile is he can be quite aggressive and chase at times, but he offsets that with a pretty good feel for the strike zone. Defensively, Doucette is a first-base-only profile, which means he will really have to hit at the next level. He’s somewhat athletic over there, but there is definitely room for improvement. Either way the bat is good enough that teams will be calling and he could easily find success in pro ball.
OF Trevor Cohen
Cohen is a very fun player at the top of the Scarlet Knights lineup. A truly scrappy player who sort of does just about everything right in terms of the little things. While he’s not loaded with tons of power, he does an incredible job at making contact and setting the table. It’s fairly quick hands that helps him to get the ball. Cohen can get a little bit chase happy at times, but his ability to make contact helps offset some of those concerns. You’d like to see some more consistent hard contact from Cohen and he’s likely a tweak or two away from making that happen. He’s got a good amount of speed that helps him make things happen on the base paths and gives him the ability to man the outfield. He has the ability to possibly be a centerfielder at the next level, although Rutgers had him in right field for this contest against Georgetown. He will be on the radar of a few teams on draft day.
2025 MLB DRAFT - GEORGETOWN
RHP Andrew Citron
Citron will likely be the closer for the Hoyas after putting up stellar numbers in 2024 to a 2.45 ERA while striking out 36 batters in 43 innings pitched. Citron is an interesting development story as he came to campus as a two-year player and strictly focused on pitching last year. He’s currently a two-pitch pitcher that consists of a fastball and curveball, although he’s flashed a changeup here and there. The fastball has been in the 89-93 MPH and has topped out a 94 MPH. In this outing, he was 88-91. While the velo was a bit done compared to what we are used to, he still had some pretty good carry on the pitch up in the zone. The curveball is Citron’s go-to pitch outside of the fastball. It ranged from 73-78 MPH but had some good bite. Command of both pitches is still a work in progress. He walked 30 batters last year, so the command and control issues aren’t new, but they are expected from a guy who has just started to focus on pitching full-time. Citron is a reliever-only type profile and if he can find some more velocity in his fastball, he might suffice as a two-pitch guy. If not, he could benefit from the development of his changeup.
C - Owen Carapellotti
Carapellotti played a massive role for the Hoyas last year and will likely be a steady producer in the heart of the lineup in 2025. He was draft eligible in 2024 and even competed in the MLB Draft League over the summer, but ended up going unselected and returns to Georgetown. He had the loudest base hit for the Hoyas in the scrimmage, reaching 104 MPH. It tracks with how hard he hit the ball in 2024 as he posted both solid average EVs and a really good max EV. Carapellotti is also fairly athletic behind the dish and has a strong arm to throw runners out. He easily looks like he is a guy who can stick behind the plate at the next level. Carapellotti will need to improve a bit on his ability to get barrel-to-ball, but overall he could be a really nice senior sign for a team on draft day.
2026 MLB DRAFT - RUTGERS
RHP Justin Shadek
A healthy Justin Shadek turned many heads in this fall appearance against the Hoyas. For me, he easily came away as the most impressive arm in game one. The fastball was consistently 93-94 in his outing, even though he ranged 90-94 MPH. He even topped out at 95. He paired that fastball with a curveball that had some serious bite. It ranged from 78-81 MPH and was definitely his go-to strikeout pitch during the game. He finished off his arsenal with a slider that was really tight and had some cutter-ish action to it. Overall, it was a very good two-inning outing for an arm who missed all of last year with an injury. He’s one I’ll definitely be monitoring and if he can stay healthy all year, he should play a massive role in the starting rotation for the Scarlet Knights.
OF Peyton Bonds
Campbell transfer Peyton Bonds (nephew of San Francisco Giants legend Barry Bonds) looks like he will be playing a significant role for Rutgers in 2025. The outfielder was manning centerfield for the Scarlet Knights and hitting in the top of the order. Bonds is a physical, imposing presence in the box coming in at 6’5, 220lbs. When he is able to get barrel to ball, the sound is loud off his bat and he posted a very high max EV with Campbell last year. Bonds is a bit stiff with his stance in the box due to his side and could use an increase in his bat speed. It seems to hinder his ability to make solid contact, and he often misses the barrel. Regardless of the hit tool concerns, you can see how the power is real and Bonds has some athleticism on top of that. He’s far from a clog on the base paths and showed in this game he does have the ability to handle center. There are some building blocks to like here and if he can make some significant adjustments in the hit tool department, Bonds could make himself an intriguing bat for the 2026 draft.
2026 MLB DRAFT - GEORGETOWN
INF Ashtin Gilio
Gilio is a guy who caught my eye over the weekend. Although he is a little undersized, he did show a solid ability to make contact and Rutgers arms had a hard time putting him away. He hit leadoff for the Hoyas and constantly was finding a way on base. The likelihood of him tapping into much power seems unlikely, but he has plenty of room to grow and could eventually put on some more strength. On top of trying to be a steady producer in the leadoff spot, Gilio is also learning a new position. The Hoyas have him at third base, and he’s quickly trying to find his way there. While nothing stands off the board a ton just yet, there is a lot worth monitoring to see if he takes steps to advance his game a bit more in 2025.