I spent this past weekend in southern California, scouting the Tony Gwynn Classic, as well as a couple of intriguing high school prospects playing nearby. Here are notes on some of the 2025 MLB Draft prospects I saw on the trip.
Arguably the most high profile was UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner, who came into the spring as the top college right-hander in this year’s draft class, off a 2024 season where he struck out 104 batters in 88 2/3 innings with just 21 walks, posting a 2.54 ERA across nine starts and 10 relief appearances. His first outing of 2025 lasted just three innings and 24 pitches, as he was pulled due to some tightness the coaches blamed on the cold weather. I was at his second outing, which also went just three innings, but required 62 pitches, and it wasn’t cold on that particular afternoon.
Bremner was up to 97 and sat mostly 93-95 against a weak Seattle University lineup, running some four-seamers up and in to lefties for ugly swings, but the pitch got hit hard when he started leaving it up over the plate in the second inning. His changeup was his best pitch, easily plus, with good arm speed and some late fade. His slider has decent spin rates, but he doesn’t finish it well out front, and it’s his least consistent pitch; he threw a couple that were 55s (out of the 20-80 scouting scale), but the majority were below average, and one of the two homers he allowed was on a hanger to a right-handed batter.
Bremner cuts himself off in his landing, which didn’t inhibit him from pitching to his glove side on Friday, but does mean he doesn’t finish anything all that well over his front side, which may be why the slider isn’t as good as the high spin rate might imply. He did throw a ton of strikes again on Friday, and he hasn’t walked a batter this season, but the command was poor, with way too many fastballs left out over the plate and no fastballs down in or below the zone.
Hitters could start to infer the pitch type just from the location — if it was up, it was a fastball, and if it was down, it was a changeup. This was just his second start, so there’s a lot of time for him to stretch out to work deeper into games and to show better fastball command. I do wonder if getting him to finish more online to the plate would help either the command or the finish to the slider.
There’s a lot more competition right now to be the top college pitcher or just the top college righty, with Tennessee’s Liam Doyle (lefty), Alabama’s Riley Quick (righty), and Stanford’s Matt Scott (righty) among those pitching and showing very well in the early going, along with the preseason pick for the top lefty, Florida State’s Jamie Arnold.
Outfielder Nick Dumesnil a power-speed prospect
Cal Baptist outfielder Nick Dumesnil was in the same tournament, the Tony Gwynn Classic, hosted by San Diego State and UC San Diego. He is off to a very strong start to the season, and he went 2-for-5 with a very lazy intentional walk in the Lancers’ Saturday night game against the UCSD Tritons.
Dumesnil has great bat speed and really waits on the ball before unloading, with above-average power to all fields and 55 speed as well, although I saw neither of those two things in his game on Saturday. I saw the bat speed and some hard contact, but that was it, and both times he struck out it came on pitches he should have hit very hard, as the Tritons ran five pitchers out there (the Lancers used six, it was a great game, let me tell you) and he wasn’t seeing premium velocity. I was hoping to see more damage here, although I understand it’s just one game and anyone can have an off-night.
Seeing Gavin Fien and other Great Oak HS and Summit HS prospects
Earlier in that day I drove up to Temecula — no one met me there, sorry — to see Great Oak (Temecula, Calif.) High School infielder Gavin Fien, one of the best pure bats in the high school group this year, and he too had a bit of an off-day. Fien singled once and flew out twice to right, getting fooled once on a slider but still managing to hit it to the outfield, while the other flyout came off a better swing where he stayed on plane longer and was better able to use his hips to drive the ball.
He showed at least a 60 arm at shortstop, making a few routine plays but never challenged there; the consensus of scouts I’ve asked is that he’s not a shortstop, but might be able to stick at third base.
Both starting pitchers in Fien’s game are committed to major D1 programs. His teammate, Reagan Ricken, is committed to LSU. The right-hander had a high-effort delivery with some head-whack at release, working 92-94 with a low-80s slider. His arm swing is fine, although he accelerates it late relative to his landing. He went just two innings.
Right-hander Dylan Harrison, the starter for Summit (Fontana, Calif.) High School, is committed to Clemson, and was 87-92 with good feel for a 76-79 mph slider. He worked five innings, throwing strikes and attacking guys, with a good delivery. His stuff obviously isn’t that close to what MLB teams look for in high school pitchers today, particularly if they’re going to have to pay them to get them away from a major program like a Clemson. I do think he’s got some real projection to the body, with a good delivery and some evident feel to pitch; I’d love to have him as a classic projection pick who might take five years to get to the majors but has a good foundation to be a starter.
(Photo of Bremner: Kyusung Gong / Associated Press)
