Cincinnati Reds draft Steele Hall with 9th pick in the 2025 MLB Draft

The speedy Alabama high schooler is just 17 years of age.

Steele Hall woke up this morning a graduate of Hewitt-Trussville (AL) High School, the reigning Alabama Mr. Baseball, and a commit to play college ball for the powerhouse that is the University of Tennessee.

When (if) he actually heads to sleep tonight, he’ll do so with another huge feather in his cap.

The Cincinnati Reds selected Hall, still just 17 years old, with the 9th pick in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday, the club banking on his elite athleticism and developing power by making him their first pick of this year’s draft.

This year’s draft, by the way, went haywire from the start, as the Washington Nationals took high school shortstop Eli Willits - the single youngest player in this draft class - 1st overall in a year where there was no consensus top overall pick. That meant draft rooms all across the league were forced to be flexible with ample information on handfuls of the top prospects available, though it does appear that Reds amateur scouting director Joe Katuska & Co. had zeroed in on Hall for quite some time.

Mark Sheldon of MLB.com has more quotes from Katuska, who dropped the likes of Dansby Swanson and Trea Turner as comps - both of whom, I should add, were also 1st round draftees.

Hall was ranked as the 12th overall prospect by MLB Pipeline entering Sunday’s 1st round, earning a 70 grade for his speed and 60 grade for his fielding.

Over at FanGraphs, Hall went off the board 9th in Eric Longenhagen’s final Mock Draft, showing this wasn’t completely out of left field.

ESPN’s final ranking of the Top 250 draft prospects had Hall 13th overall, where Kiley McDaniel was high on Hall’s upside and even mentioned current Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe as a potential comp.

Slot value for pick #9 is a hair over $6.5 million, and remember that the Reds shed a lot of their bonus pool money when they deal their Competitive Balance Round A pick to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Gavin Lux deal. In other words, this won’t be one of those under-slot draftees, so the Reds have committed themselves to having to find some frugality elsewhere in their overall draft class after swinging big for a prep player like Hall with their first selection.