2025 MLB Draft Deep Dive: Brendan Summerhill

College baseball is back. In the past few weeks, we’ve brought you a ton of exciting college content, from preseason All-Americans to live looks from Shriners.

Today, we continue our prospect deep dives on the most notable prospects ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft in July. Next up, Arizona outfielder Brendan Summerhill.

• Age: 21.7 on Draft Day
• B/T: L/R
• HT: 6’3
• WT: 205
• Hometown: Chicago, IL
• 2024 Stats: 58 G, 279 PA, .324/.399/.550 (.950), 50 R, 18 2B, 6 3B, 8 HR, 7 SB, 31 BB, 36 SO, 122 wRC+

College Performance and Scouting Report

Brendan Summerhill is a little bit of a sweet spot profile for me that I am biased towards: a player who can do a little bit of everything well. His well-rounded profile provides him with a strong platform for college performance, without necessarily having one standout tool yet.

He made a strong first impression in his freshman season at Arizona, posting an .833 OPS in a 22-game debut that featured a more aggressive approach at the plate than he has now.

Summerhill took off in his sophomore season, hitting .324/.399/.550 (.950) with eight home runs (32 extra-base hits) and almost as many walks (31) as strikeouts (36). He followed this up with a .798 OPS in a 24-game Cape stint that set him up as a college bat in first-round contention ahead of his junior season.

Summerhill is upright in the batter’s box, using a toe tap as a timing mechanism before launching into a long stride. He shows some power, particularly to the pull side in addition to good pitch recognition skills and strong strike zone awareness.

He can get a little overextended and out in front in his swing at times, but there’s a repeatable, effective series of movements in his at-bats.

Summerhill’s 2024 Data

Summerhill checked so many boxes in 2024 that he’s become a hard-to-ignore draft profile in a college class that lacks top-of-the-scale impact talent.

His 87% overall contact rate in 2024 was 90th percentile in college baseball, with a strong 9% in-zone whiff percentage speaking to excellent bat-to-ball skills. Summerhill is equally strong out of the strike zone, too (88th percentile). He chases a bit (23%), but it’s not enough to be a concern, as it’s well above average for the level.

Digging into his quality of contact is what hints that there’s more power in the tank. Summerhill isn’t a bopper. His 110 mph max exit velocity in 2024 was 72nd percentile in college baseball, with a 104 mph 90th percentile EV close behind in the 70th percentile.

Summerhill’s average exit velocity (87 mph) is only 48th percentile. There’s a discrepancy there.

Summerhill has the ability to impact the baseball, but he’s not getting to his best quality of contact with enough consistency to maximize damage. I feel confident enough in Summerhill’s pitch recognition, approach, and swing path to suggest that he’ll work through this kink in his profile with time.

I’d add that there’s likely more strength left to add to the frame. I think you’re projecting an above-average to plus hit tool with average to above-average power long term.

Defensively, Summerhill has the speed and athleticism to stick in center field. In the first three games of 2024 at Shriners, he played right field.

Headlines and Takeaways

Brendan Summerhill’s well-rounded offensive profile has cemented him firmly as a first-round name ahead of July, for me. There are no glaring weaknesses in his profile, with everything but the power above average.

Evaluators will likely be watching whether he gets more opportunities to show he can be a strong defender in center field in 2024, in addition to whether he can maximize his quality of contact, and power output, with more consistency.