It’s been a busy day at the MLB Draft, with the league’s 30 teams sifting through the country’s amateur talent and calling out 17 rounds worth of names today. The Yankees picked Dax Kilby and Kaeden Kent with their first and third-round picks yesterday, and have brought in a haul of young talent over the course of this afternoon.
Monday started with the Yankees popping pitcher Pico Kohn in the fourth round and shortstop Core Jackson in the fifth. You can find the rest of our round-by-round commentary
with my run through the sixth through tenth rounds, and Andrew’s look at the 11th through 15th rounds.
Now, we’re in the home stretch. Here, you’ll find the Yankees’ last five picks in the 2025 Draft, as the league sifts through the 16th through 20th rounds.
Round 16, Pick 494: Jackson Lovich, SS Missouri, 6’4” 192 lbs.
Lovich, a righty-swinging infielder, comes from a baseball family; his older brother Ross also played for Mizzou, while his younger brother Eli plays in the Cubs system after getting drafted in the 11th round last year. Jackson graduated from Blue Valley West High School in Kansas and came out as the top-ranked shortstop in the state.
After a shaky freshman year in 2023, Lovich posted a .918 OPS in 2024 and broke out with a .357/.430/.622 slash line in 2025 with 12 homers and seven steals in 51 games. The 21-year-old has also posted about working on his bat speed in the lab at Missouri, which would suggest he’ll adapt well to whatever analytical techniques he may encounter working with the Yankee player development system:
Good to have Mizzou ⚾️ star @JacksonLovich back in the TopSpeed lab.
— Joseph Potts (@TopSpeedLLC) June 9, 2025
Sciencing our way to a better bat speed program pic.twitter.com/2yuMrj4CvU
Round 17, Pick 524: Ryan Osinski, RHP Virginia, 6’6” 235 lbs.
Osinski is a big, right-handed reliever who spent one year with Bucknell before transferring to Virginia. He closed for Bucknell, recording eight saves and a 2.37 ERA in 17 appearances and 19 innings. Things got more challenging with the Cavaliers, Osinski posting a 4.80 ERA in 2024, his first year with Virginia, before running a 5.57 ERA in 2025.
Walks seem to have been the bugaboo for Osinski; he struck out 22 batters in 21 innings this year, but with 15 walks. We don’t have much data or scouting on Osinski, but the pitcher himself did appear to post this video of himself closing against Villanova two years ago:
In this video, Osinski shows an over-the-top delivery, with a fastball that seems to have a bit of life and a slider. The title of the video claims he sat 90-94 mph on the fastball here, so if he’s added any velo on top of that, which wouldn’t be surprising given his huge 6-foot-6 frame, the Yankees may be taking a flier on a power relief arm here. Indeed, a post from Osinski’s Instagram indicates he’s touched 100 mph on his four-seamer:
Round 18, Pick 554: Justin West, LHP Louisville, 6’3” 195 lbs.
It’s another college arm for the Yankees, this time the southpaw Justin West out of Louisville. He graduated from Paducah Tilghman High in Kentucky as the top-ranked left-handed pitcher in the state.
West missed most of the 2023 season due to injury, then made 12 appearances for the Cardinals in 2024, posting a 5.40 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 16.2 innings. He had a strong showing in the Cape Cod League that summer, running a 3.00 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 15 innings, before another shaky season with Louisville in 2025, a 5.59 ERA in 37 frames.
Round 19, Pick 584: Hayden Morris, RHP Blinn College, 6’8” 265 lbs.
The Yankees have gone to the JuCo ranks, popping right-hander Hayden Morris out of Blinn College. If that sounds familiar, it’s the same Texas community college Yankees’ 10th-round pick Connor McGinnis started at before transferring to Houston.
The burly Morris appears to have pitched just one season with Blinn, making 19 appearances, 14 of them starts, in 2025. He posted a 4.18 ERA, striking out 106 against 48 walks in 86.1 innings. YouTube footage of Morris shows the righty throwing a fastball and slider from a traditional arm slot:
The video also claims Morris runs his fastball at 95-96 mph and slider at 86-88 mph.
Round 20, Pick 614: Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek, SS USC, 6’3” 185 lbs.
The Yankees use their last pick of the 2025 Draft on the shortstop Martin-Grudzielanek, son of Danielle Martin and Mark Grudzielanek. Strong bloodlines, with Bryce’s mother playing softball for UCLA, and father Mark of course playing 15 seasons in MLB.
Martin-Grudzielanek played three seasons for USC, though he missed most of his second year with a wrist injury. He returned this year to post a .294/.364/.433 slash line, hitting eight homers and stealing nine bases in 60 games. Tough to find much scouting information on the son of the big leaguer, but here’s footage of him hitting an impressive opposite-field homer this season:
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Assessing the Yankees’ two picks on Day 1 of the 2025 MLB Draft
- Futures Game: Lombard doubles, walks, steals, and swears
- Yankees 1, Cubs 4: Imanaga stifles Bombers in first-half finale
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- The hitting genius of Aaron Judge
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
