Oregon arrived in Iowa City trailing the Hawkeyes by two games in the chase for the 2025 Big Ten regular season title. The Ducks dominated the series, outscoring Iowa 32-10 and then flew home with the co-championship hardware, sharing with UCLA who won two of three against Northwestern.

Here’s a quick look at the top 2025 draft-eligible prospects from each club and a top round “One to Watch” for the 2026 college draft class.

IOWA

Thursday starter Cade Obermueller surrendered three consecutive singles in the first inning, but battled to limit the damage to a single run. His fastball was electric at times, topping at 94 in the fourth and sitting 90-92 throughout. It’s a sneaky heater, thrown with low effort and one that jumps on hitters. His low-80s slider peaked in quality in the third inning, consistently showing above average and producing several swing/misses. The lefthander located the breaker to both doors, but his armside offerings backed up often. For the evening he easy-tossed 90 pitches and allowed eight hits on eight runs in five innings. He struck out eight and now has 107 punchouts in 76.1 innings this season. His strikeout rate of 32.5% is a 99th percentile mark and his top whiff pitch is his fastball at 28.2% (91st percentile). Despite a repeatable and low effort delivery, he walked three and his control best profiles as a reliever in pro baseball. He’ll likely be considered in the 4th-to-5th round.

Shortstop Gable Mitchell is the Hawkeyes top positional prospect eligible for this summer’s draft. He put bat to ball throughout the series, but went hitless in ten at-bats. Aggressive in the batter’s box, he’s always ready to swing and rarely misses. His all pitch Whiff rate of 10.7% is 87th percentile and his Whiff rate against the slider is 99th percentile. Also, his 7.4% strikeout rate resides in the 98th percentile. Gable is an above average runner and he’s swiped 12 bases in 14 attempts this season. Defensively, his range is average to go along with athletic actions and near average arm strength. It all works and plays fine at the college level, but projects to be less than ideal for a long-term role at shortstop in pro ball. At the next level he looks to be best suited for second base. More of a very good college baseball player than a premium draft pick , he’s likely to be considered on day three of the draft.

Aaron Savary started game two on Friday. The junior righthander was a Cape Cod All-Star last summer and has continued with more success this spring – he entered the series 7-1 with a 3.66 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 71.1 innings. Part of what makes him cook is his confident, high-level competitiveness and it was evident early that he was ready for the challenge. With constant 30+ mph winds blowing out to right field Savary took it to the Ducks with a 90-91 tailing fastball, a hard 76-79 sweeper and a low-80s changeup. He mixed the trio for 5.2 innings, allowing just three runs on seven hits. Savary is similar to Mitchell in that he’s a very good college baseball pitcher, but he lacks a pitch that the draft “pays” for. Both his sweeper and changeup are high quality pitches, but his heater is light. It has averaged just 88.7 mph this season with a 39th percentile Whiff of 15.6%. His sweeper grades the highest with a 94th percentile in-zone whiff rate of 33.3%.

Despite not being at full health, fifth-year senior Reece Beuter toed the rubber for the start in the series finale. He battled the Ducks for 2.2 innings, allowing just one hit and one run before exiting after 42 pitches. His first inning fastball topped at 92, but dropped to 88-89 by the start of the second. His slider was his primary weapon. It’s a high-spinner into the 2900s rpm that sat 82-85 mph. He’s thrown the pitch over 56% of the time this spring, and 67.8% of the time for a strike. His low-80s changeup was his third pitch. His mostly SL/FB mix with an occasional changeup has limited opponents to a .197 batting average against this spring, which ranks in the 98th percentile. Beuter could hear his name called during day three of the draft this July.

OREGON

Opposing Obermueller on Thursday, junior lefthander Grayson Grinsell continued his dominating season for the Ducks. A front-runner for Big Ten Pitcher of the Year, Grinsell pitched a seven inning CG shutout on 116 pitches. He allowed just two hits, walked one and struck out eight. The southpaw’s 88-91 fastball doesn’t overwhelm, but it comes in with good angle from a near over-the-top slot and good carry to the plate. And when combined with an above average changeup, the result was consistent swing/miss throughout this start. His 77-79 mph change-of-pace has yielded just a .167 (83rd percentile) batting average against and a 48.7% Whiff rate (92nd percentile) this spring. Overall, Grinsell possesses the skill to have success at the pro level, but a lack of average fastball velocity limits his draft value. It will be interesting to see if day three draft value is enough to lure him away from a fourth season in Eugene in 2026.

One who won’t return to UO next season, and the most impressive of all the Ducks’ prospects this series at Iowa, was 6-foot-4, 225 pound senior first baseman Jacob Walsh. For a slugger he displayed a remarkable ability to adjust with two strikes and hit the ball where pitched. This approach resulted in a two-strike single to the opposite field in the first inning on Thursday and he stayed through a first inning changeup to square up a 103 mph double to right field on Friday. Walsh finished the series with multiple hits in each game, totaling 8-for-15 with three doubles and two home runs. Both of his home runs left the bat at 111 mph with the Friday shot traveling 445’ and Saturday’s 433’. He’s currently hitting .344 with 19 home runs and 59 RBIs. Walsh has also stolen eight bases in eight attempts. Most remarkable of all is the reduction in his strikeout rate from 26.2% last season to 17.1% this spring while raising his ISO from .294 to .349. He’s on the short list of high-profile prospects that have been able to increase their power while lowering their strikeout rate. Others include Aiva Arquette, Wehiwa Aloy, Devin Taylor, Alex Lodise, Andrew Fischer and teammate Mason Neville, to name a few. The importance of this ability can’t be overstated and it’s one that has vaulted Walsh up into the top four-to-five rounds.

The Ducks’ top prospect according to the industry is centerfielder Mason Neville. The lefthanded leadoff hitter struggled (0-for-5, 4 strikeouts) against the same-side velocity and breaking ball from Obermueller and fellow Hawkeye southpaw Bryson Walker in the series opening game. Neville doubled in his second at-bat on Friday for his only base hit of the series and finished 1-for-14 with nine strikeouts. Needless to say, it wasn’t the same hitter who has slugged 26 home runs this season and was batting .322 entering the series. At the plate he loads into a bit of an arm bar which he uses for leverage, but it also creates length that can be exposed. And Iowa continued to expose it when Neville wasn’t able to adjust his swing. Although a lefthanded hitter, Neville reminds me of former 2018 third round outfielder Bren Spillane (Illinois) – a large-framed, athletic toolshed with power and swing/miss to his game. Regarded as a second round talent entering the series, Neville’s performance certainly didn’t raise his draft stock, but it did produce question marks. Luckily, the Ducks are an Omaha-caliber club and Neville will likely have plenty of opportunity to right his ship moving forward into the postseason.

Six-foot-11, 215-pound junior righthander Jason Reitz has started to put it together his last few starts this spring. He allowed just one run in 5.2 innings on 96 pitches on Saturday. Standing 6-foot-11, his outlier 6-foot-8 to 6-foot-10 release height is challenging enough, but adding in four pitches from that same high slot further increases the complexity. His fastball sat 91-93 with spin into the 2400s. He also mixed a 85-86 changeup with spin in the 1300-1500s, an 80 mph curve and an 85-86 slider. His best pitch this season has been his slider which has an 85th percentile Whiff of 42.9%. A fair athlete, it’s rare to be a great athlete at his height, Reitz will need further development fielding his position and developing a consistent release point to enhance his control. For obvious reasons, he reminds of Sean Hjelle (Kentucky), a second round pick by San Francisco in 2018. Reitz won’t go nearly this tall in the draft, but he should start to be considered around the 5th-to-6th round.

Third baseman Carter Garate has a pro toolset that includes plus arm strength and plus defense. He also runs above average and has some serious juice at the plate. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound lefthanded hitter went big fly, 453’ to right field with a 108 mph EV. In his next at-bat, he bunted for a hit. Garate has lowered strikeout rate from 39% as a freshman to 25% as a sophomore to 15% this spring. He started this season strong at the plate, slumped down to .255, but has grinded his way back to a current average of .271. With pro-caliber tools and plenty of projection to his game and body type, Garate is a good “buy low” pick for day three.

And the talent pipeline doesn’t end with the Ducks’ 2025 draft-eligible class. Shortstop Maddox Molony looks like a real talent for day one in 2026. A 6-foot-2, 190 pound righthanded hitter, Molony belted two opposite field home runs on Thursday to up his season total to 15. The first long ball left the bat at 96 mph and traveled 375’, the second at 91 mph and 339’. He’s also a smooth defender with at least average range in all directions that is enhanced by a super quick catch/throw from all angles. Molony is a top follow to watch this summer.