2025 MLB Draft Report: Jace LaViolette and Texas A&M are slipping to start 2025

Wake Forest rolled into the 2024 season with a handful of projected first-round talented players and the preseason No. 1 ranking. After an 11-1 start, the Demon Deacons looked the part of being the country’s best team. But then suddenly, the ball didn’t bounce Wake Forest’s way, and other than Chase Burns, many players struggled to perform up to expectations. They finished 21-7 at home, but 10-11 in away games and 15-15 in ACC play. Despite the overwhelming early confidence, they finished 2024 getting swept in Regionals. 

Texas A&M didn’t have the depth Wake Forest had last year, but everyone (including myself) thought they had the best position player in Jace LaViolette. Led by his powerful bat, the Aggies were considered the preseason No. 1 team in the country this time around. But as of March 19, Texas A&M is 11-9 and were swept at home in their first conference series against Alabama this past weekend. The Aggies are slipping to start the season, and so is their top prospect, LaViolette. 

First Look at Jace LaViolette

Entering the weekend series against Alabama, LaViolette was batting .257 for the season with five home runs in 16 games. Considering LaViolette hit 21 home runs as a freshman and 29 homers last year, he was well off his usual pace. Then again, Jac Caglianone only had five home runs on March 15, 2024, before going bonkers at the plate and finishing with 35 bombs. It’s to say that the season is still early for LaViolette, and he has the talent to break out in a similar fashion.

In the SEC Opener, LaViolette had three at-bats against Alabama starter LHP Zane Adams, who is projected to be a second-round talent in this year's draft class. In the first plate appearance, LaViolette got caught looking at an inside-breaking pitch from Adams for a strikeout. Next time up, LaViolette bounced back nicely. With Texas A&M trailing and a runner on second base, LaViolette took a 93 MPH four-seamer on the outside corner and flicked it down the line in left field. I am not going to be impressed with the exit velocity for that RBI double, but it was a nice piece of hitting. 

The battles between LaViolette and Adams finished in the fifth inning with A&M trailing, 4-2. After a slider in the dirt, Adams could only muster 89 MPH on his four-seamer that caught quite a bit of the plate. It's the type of pitch last year that LaViolette would muscle out to deep center field for a big home run. But that didn't happen, as LaViolette was late on the pitch and flew out harmlessly in the left-center field gap. 

Now facing Alabama relievers in the seventh inning, LaViolette lined a single to right field on an 87 MPH fastball for his second base hit. In his final plate appearance, with A&M down 6-4 in the ninth inning, LaViolette drew a walk to bring up the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the next at-bat resulted in a soft liner back to the pitcher, and LaViolette was caught way too far off first base, resulting in a costly TOOTBLAN and an Alabama victory.

LaViolette finished 2-for-4 with an RBI double and walk. I hoped that performance would be a good way to break open the rest of the weekend. 

I was wrong. Those would be the only two hits against Alabama, as he finished 2-for-11 in three games, and quite frankly, I didn't see LaViolette hit anything hard. While watching his swing, I noticed that the arm action was stiff. There's no snap or fluidity with the swing. Unfortunately, I don't have the TrackMan data to prove it, but LaViolette's swing looks slow. I question the bat speed, but I would rather be more confident about that scouting point with data to back it up. 

I'm not the only one. Luckily, we have James Fegan on staff, who has connections with amateur scouts from various MLB teams. One scout agrees with me that LaViolette's bat is slow. Because of that, it appears LaViolette has to cheat on high-velocity pitches, which adds up when looking at LaViolette's strikeout percentage over the seasons. 

Despite lowering the strikeout rate so far in 2025, LaViolette is still at 20 percent facing college pitching. Even more concerning is that LaViolette’s home run to fly ball percentage has gone down in 2025. He's hitting more pitches in the air, but getting less out of them.  

What impressed most scouts last year regarding Caglianone is how well he hit left-handed pitching. It eased the concern that Caglianone would be a platoon bat if he couldn’t fight off tough stuff from southpaws. Not even Hagen Smith could strike out Caglianone, and he embarrassed Travis Bazzana and Braden Montgomery. 

In the past two seasons, LaViolette has been batting .341/.416/.847 against left-handed pitching, with 13 home runs in 101 plate appearances. That’s impressive, but going under the hood, there are some noticeable data points that I wonder if more analytically inclined SEC teams will start using against LaViolette. Despite the power numbers, LaViolette whiffs 31 percent of the time against LHP, but that increases to 46 percent against sliders. His chase rate on sliders from left-handers is only 19 percent, so LaViolette is whiffing on college-breaking pitches in the zone. 

On Tuesday, LaViolette went 4-for-6 against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with two RBI. All four hits were singles, and LaViolette’s season slash line is .268/.419/.521 as A&M prepares for their road trip to Vanderbilt. 

Defensively, LaViolette has been playing center field, which was a curious decision, but that’s been a bright spot for him. I was impressed with LaViolette’s range against Alabama, and he made a terrific catch at the wall on Saturday to steal extra bases.

Texas A&M can’t afford another sweep this weekend. Confidence in this squad is waning, and I don’t recall the last time a preseason No. 1 team didn’t make Regionals. We’ve got a long way to go, but it's undeniably a poor start by A&M and LaViolette is tightening the screws. It’ll be interesting to watch how they respond. 

Notable Performances

• I loved watching Florida and Tennessee battle this past weekend. The Gators put up a good fight, but the Vols did complete the sweep to push their season record to 20-0. That was until Tuesday night, when pesky East Tennessee State shocked the country, holding on in 10 innings to win 7-6.
• The more I watch Liam Doyle, the more I see the pre-shoulder injury version of John Danks. He is still pumping big fastball velocities despite the high-effort delivery, but Doyle's control is an issue, as he only went 4⅔ innings on 105 pitches against Florida this past Friday. It's still a good line (4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K), but Doyle has yet to get past the sixth inning in any start this season, which is something to monitor.
• My draft crush Gavin Kilen went 3-for-9 against Florida this past weekend with a home run and two walks. In the loss to ETSU, Kilen went 2-for-5 with another home run, which gives him 10 for the season. He’s hitting .431/.552/.986 with 20 BB to 6 K.

• Clemson outfielder Cam Cannarella is a prospect that I foresee dropping considerably from his preseason ranking, but he’s putting up big numbers in his last three games. Against Notre Dame and The Citadel, Cannarella went 10-for-13. Only one of those 10 hits went for extra bases (a double). On the season, Cannarella only has one home run. He’s doing his best to produce, hitting .351/.473/.486, but if I were an MLB team, I would have a lot of questions regarding his previous shoulder injuries.
• Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill is hitting the ball hard, but it’s not going over the fence. Currently on a nine game hitting streak, Summerhill is 19-for-36 (.527 AVG) with three doubles and triples. Summerhill is now batting .427/.505/.695 thanks to a crazy .478 BABIP, and he's leading the country with six triples. But against Kansas on Tuesday night, Summerhill had two hard hit balls travel 105.2 MPH and 104.7 MPH. Thanks to my guy Timothy Chen on Twitter (@TimStats), Summerhill has a 49 percent hard-hit rate (EV > 95 MPH), a 16 percent chase rate, and a 9 percent in-zone whiff rate. Maybe I have to reconsider my previous position on Summerhill.
• Wake Forest shortstop Marek Houston went 6-for-14 against Miami this past weekend, helping the Demon Deacons sweep the Hurricanes. Houston is now batting .414/.509/.782 with eight homers and 39 RBIs, which already matches last year’s total in 22 games.
• While watching LaViolette, I would be remiss if I didn’t provide some insight on Alabama shortstop Justin Lebron, who is 2026 draft-eligible. It wasn’t an easy weekend at the plate for Lebron, who, like LaViolette, was held hitless in two of the three games. But on Saturday, Lebron went 3-for-4 with a big home run to help Alabama win. With 12 home runs, Lebron is tied for the national lead with Grant Gallagher of East Tennessee State and Ryland Zaborowski of Georgia. Lebron alone leads the country with 45 RBIs, staying ahead of Marek Houston. Suppose you were thinking of asking me this summer, “Hey, Josh. Who are the White Sox tanking for in 2026?” My current answer is Justin Lebron. He looks the real deal at shortstop, and the more I talk to people within college baseball, they can’t speak more highly of his character. Get on the hype train while there are plenty of seats available.

• I’m tracking two pitchers in the upcoming weeks: Wake Forest RHP Logan Lunceford and LSU LHP Kade Anderson. Lunceford is undersized at 5’10”, but he’s putting up impressive numbers in five starts: 27.0 IP, 10 H, 9 BB, 50 K, and a 1.33 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .110 against Lunceford. Meanwhile, Anderson was Sox Machine’s No. 49 Preseason Draft Prospect, and he’s racked up 48 strikeouts to eight walks in five starts spanning 28 innings. I feel like we, as an industry, were sleeping on the college pitchers this preseason, but after the first month, I like what I’ve seen. It could be a sneaky deep draft for college arms that trickle into the second and third rounds. 

Games I’m Watching This Weekend

No. 1 Tennessee at No. 16 Alabama

• Thursday, March 20 - 6:30 PM CT on ESPNU
• Friday, March 21 - 6:00 PM CT on SEC+
• Saturday, March 22 - 1:00 PM CT on SEC+ 

Alabama is playing good baseball and could test Tennessee this weekend. The prospects are the usual suspects, and I'm hoping to get good video clips of Liam Doyle vs. Justin Lebron.

No. 2 LSU at No. 9 Texas

• Friday, March 21 - 7:00 PM CT on SEC Network
• Saturday, March 22 - 6:00 PM CT on SEC+
• Sunday, March 23 - 2:00 PM CT on SEC+

This is going to be a great series between LSU and Texas with plenty of draft prospects to follow this weekend: