2025 MLB Draft Deep Dive: Max Belyeu
The college baseball season is in full swing, and Just Baseball continues our analysis of 2025 MLB Draft prospects with Texas outfielder Max Belyeu.
The college baseball season is in full swing. In the past few weeks, we’ve brought you a ton of exciting college content, from preseason All-Americans to updated top 25 rankings.
We’ll also continue our prospect deep dives on some of the most notable prospects ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft in July. Next up, Texas outfielder Max Belyeu
- Age: 21.6 on Draft Day
- B/T: L/R
- HT: 6’2
- WT: 215
- Hometown: Longview, TX
- 2024 Stats: 59 G, 249 PA, .329/.423/.667 (1.090), 50 R, 15 2B, 1 3B, 18 HR, 3 SB, 27 BB, 44 SO, 142 wRC+
College Performance and Scouting Report
Max Belyeu is a bat-first corner outfield prospect who had plenty of draft interest coming out of high school in Texas in the 2022 cycle. Then 18 years old, Belyeu was a wiry but strong 18-year-old with a free-swinging approach.
After getting only a smattering of playing time as a freshman at Texas in 2023, he’s coming off an outstanding sophomore season in which he hit .329/.423/.667 (1.090) with 18 home runs (34 extra-base hits) with an 18% strikeout rate while walking a respectable 11% of the time.
Belyeu followed up his loud season with a modest Cape performance (.658 OPS in 18 games for Cotuit).
Fast forward to his junior year and Belyeu has added around 20 pounds of good weight. He has an aesthetically pleasing setup in the box. His stance is just on the open side of neutral with a shoulder-high handset and very little in the way of pre-swing moves. He uses a small leg kick to start his swing, generating good bat speed in a loft-oriented, left-handed stroke.
Belyeu’s swing helps him tap into above-average power, and he leverages the whole field well with access to consistent opposite-field extra-base impact.
2024 Data: Strengths and Opportunities
The biggest strength of Belyeu’s profile is doing damage on contact. In 2024, Belyeu was 90th percentile or higher in D1 baseball for wOBA and expected damage. His 90th percentile exit velocity of 108 mph was 95th percentile, and his 112 mph max exit velocity was near the top of the scale in the college game.
After launching 18 home runs (34 extra-base hits) in 2024, Belyeu already has two home runs (five extra-base hits) in his first six games of 2025. His power is particularly prevalent to the pull side.
Late night Max Belyeu pump? You got it.
— Tyler Jennings (@TylerJennings24) February 16, 2025
Belyeu has lived on the barrel tonight, launching this home run to the Texas bullpen with a beautiful swing. Left the bat at 108 MPH with little effort. Also laced another ball at 113 MPH earlier.
#24 on the @JustBB_Media College Top 80. pic.twitter.com/b7zelF3x1n
Most outlets have graded Belyeu’s hit tool as average, and that’s where there are some questions in the profile for me. Let’s start with the approach and swing decisions.
Belyeu is a fairly aggressive swinger (44% swing percentage in 2024). He also tends to swing out of the zone a ton. In 2024, his chase rate was north of 30% (23rd percentile), a tendency that’s particularly prevalent against spin.
While this is offset by a strong ability to make contact out of the strike zone, his propensity to chase is a consideration for drafting teams. There are plenty of MLB organizations that have shown an ability to improve swing decisions; there’s work to be done there for Belyeu.
There are also some questions around bat-to-ball skills, for me. Belyeu’s overall contact rate in 2024 was ~77%, which is good, not great. His 15% whiff rate in-zone was pretty high, too.
Belyeu certainly has a chance for an average hit tool. His 2025 season may well answer some of these small questions about his offensive skill set. I’m simply contending that there are a few more nuances to monitor with his hit tool than have been raised around his draft profile thus far.
Defensively, it is a more average set of tools. The glove is solid in the outfield, although his route running could use honing. The arm is around average. It’s likely a corner profile long-term (left field).
Headlines and Takeaways
Max Belyeu is a bat-first corner profile with solid supplementary tools to guard against some modest hit tool risk. If he can improve his swing decisions in 2025 and make even a small improvement in his bat-to-ball metrics, he’s an option for round one. If some of those challenges persist, I’d have him in the Comp A-to-round two range.
For me, Belyeu is a microcosm of this class of college bats: plenty of extra-base impact with some opportunities to refine the hit tool.
Written by