Just a few hours after the Red Sox finished the pre-All-Star portion of the 2025 campaign on the highest note of their year so far, sweeping four games from the division rival Tampa Bay Rays to take a 10-game winning streak â second longest in MLB this season â into the four-day break, the Boston organization turned its sights to the future.
The 60th annual Major League Baseball draft was held in Atlanta on Saturday. The Red Sox owned the 15th pick in the first round, thanks to their 81-81 record in 2024. Chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow and his staff used the pick to take a 20-year-old right-handed pitcher out of the University of Oklahoma, Kyson Witherspoon â who according to MLB Pipeline, “has all of the ingredients to become a frontline starter” at the Major League level.
Here’s what you need to know about the Jacksonville, Florida, native as he begins his journey, that the Red Sox hope will take him to the mound at Fenway Park.
He’s the First Red Sox 1st-Round Pitcher in 8 Years
The last time the Red Sox used their first-round draft slot on a mound prospect was 2017, when they selected righty Tanner Houck out of the University of Missouri with the 24th pick overall.
Houck made his big league debut three years later, on September 15, 2020 â near the end of that COVID-shortened season. Prospect expert Conor Duffy of SoxProspects.com wrote that the Red Sox expect Witherspoon to “move quickly through the farm system,” calling the former Sooner a “polished starting pitcher” with “four quality pitches.”
Witherspoon also becomes the first Oklahoma Sooner to go in the first round since 2022, when the Chicago Cubs drafted righty pitcher Cade Horton, who debuted for the Cubs this season and had made 10 starts before the All-Star break.
Witherspoon Was the Top-Rated College Righty
MLB Pipeline rated Witherspoon No. 10 overall on their pre-draft “Big Board.” That made him the highest-ranked right-handed pitching prospect at the college level. The Pipeline rated Corona, California high-schooler Seth Hernandez fourth overall. The Pittsburgh Pirates took Hernandez with the No. 6 pick.
In their final mock draft, the MLB Pipeline experts had Witherspoon falling to No. 13, taken by the San Francisco Giants. In reality, he fell two more slots where the Red Sox grabbed him.
Witherspoon is an Identical Twin
Witherspoon’s identical twin brother, Malachi Witherspoon, is also a righty pitcher at Oklahoma, but according to ESPN.com “projects as a fastball/slider reliever.”
MLB Pipeline ranks Malachi Witherspoon at No. 121 on its prospect Big Board. He was not drafted in the first round, but appears likely to be picked in the second or third round.
Kyson is the older of the twin brothers born on August 12, 2004, by 14 minutes. They were raised by a single mother, along with their older sister and younger brother.
Witherspoon Transferred After One Season in Florida
The 20-year-old pitched two seasons for Oklahoma after starting his college career at Northwest Florida State College, where he posted a 3.10 ERA in 69 2/3 innings pitched.
He also pitched a summer in the Cape Cod League, about a two-hour drive south of Boston, where he made two starts for the Chatham Anglers, allowing just one earned run in nine innings pitched while striking out 10 and walking no one.
Pick of Witherspoon Earns Wide Acclaim
Once the Red Sox had completed their selection of Witherspoon, former Colorado Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd â speaking as a commentator for MLB Network, expressed enthusiasm for the pick.
âThis guy has more upside of anyone thatâs been taken from a pitching standpoint,â OâDowd said on the broadcast. âI think this young man is just scratching the surface of how good he can be.â
Baseball America had Witherspoon ranked at No. 7 on its own Big Board, and named the 6-foot-2-inch, 207-pounder a first-team All-American for the 2025 college season.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Kyson Witherspoon, Red Sox First-Round Draft Pick: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know appeared first on Heavy Sports.