UCLA’s Trio of MLB Draft Risers
It’s no secret that UCLA is the premier program in college baseball right now. They have a number of experienced players as well as a number of legitimate draft prospects in the 2026 draft class, a few of which have quickly made a name for themselves early on in the season. While UCLA star shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the slam dunk favorite to be the number one pick right now, these three Bruins are working towards putting themselves in the first round conversation.
Will Gasparino
Will Gasparino transferred from Texas to UCLA last summer, and has quickly cemented himself in Bruins baseball lore for his scorching hot start to the season. After UCLA’s cinematic win over Mississppi State on Sunday at the Amegy Bank Series at Globe Life Field, Gasparino is up to a nation-leading ten home runs on the season, only three long balls short of his 2025 total.
Gasparino came into the draft cycle as a glove-first center fielder with power upside but legitimate holes in his hit tool, likely meaning his draft value was going to entirely come from his glove and athleticism. As a sophomore at Texas, it was a 19.2% in-zone whiff rate, 28.2% overall whiff rate, and a 31.6% chase rate, all of which were 25th percentile or lower in the college ranks, with the chase being the biggest hole in the offensive package. Typically big college sluggers balance their below-average contact rates with a solid approach, but it’s hard to project upon much production at the plate for a hitter with both contact and approach issues regardless of the power output. However, Gasparino has quickly become one of the premier rising bats in the class and is completely changing his outlook as a prospect.
The questions concerning Gasparino’s game at the plate all came down to his ability to get to his power. There was certainly some present power in the bat even last year as he posted a 93rd percentile EV90 and a 92nd percentile dating back to his freshman year at Texas. Fast forward to his junior year and it’s safe to say that Gasparino is getting to that power. Now some older college bats can get to higher home run totals despite a lack of a professional hit tool simply due to a lack of competition on the mound. That case can’t necessarily be made against Gasparino as UCLA has played one of the tougher schedules in college baseball. He has three multi-home run games thus far, coming against Tulane, TCU, and Tennessee. Because of the depth of the lineup, pitchers can’t pitch around Gasparino, so he is getting challenged, showing that he can in fact produce against the game’s top arms. The holes in the hit tool are by no means solved, but he has managed to suppress those concerns while consistently finding the barrel and loud contact in the air. Gasparino had nine batted ball events at Globe Life Field over the weekend. Seven of them produced an exit velocity north of 100 mph, while the other two came in at 98.0 and 91.6 mph, giving him an average exit velocity of 104.5 mph on the weekend while striking out just twice a in 15 plate appearances. At 6’6” and a lean, lanky 220 pounds, there’s definitely more juice in the profile as he fills out his frame too.
Add on the athletic upside and defensive chops in center field, and all it takes is consistency into the heat of the season for Will Gasparino to be a legitimate first round name.
Logan Reddemann
Another transfer this past summer, the right-handed Logan Redemmann came over to UCLA after spending his first two college seasons a few hours south at San Diego. After joining the Bruins, he slotted right in as UCLA’s Friday night starter and has done nothing but post thus far in 2026.
Through three starts, the 6’2”, 200 pound right-hander has seen UC San Diego, TCU, and Tennessee. He has worked five innings in each start while allowing no more than three earned runs. His start against TCU, one of the best lineups in college baseball, was his most dominant as he struck out ten while allowing just five hits and one walk. In 15.1 total innings of work, Reddemann owns a 35.9% strikeout rate to just a 6.3% walk rate.
Through Reddemann’s first two seasons, it was about command and pitch-ability over stuff, but the stuff has made quite a jump in 2026, establishing himself as one of the more well-rounded college arms in the 2026 draft class. His fastball has seen an uptick in velocity, working in the low-90s at San Diego and now sitting in the mid-90s and topping out at 97 mph with UCLA. He has added some lift to the offering as well (up to max 21 IVB and 17 IVB average in most recent start) and is doing a great job of locating it at the upper third of the strike zone. With a low launch due to a lower release point and Reddemann’s ability to get down the mound, the pitch checks a lot of boxes without having to consistently be thrown at high velocities or with outlier metrics.
The changeup is another pitch with an up arrow next to it. Sitting in the mid-80s, it doesn’t grade out well on stuff models, but it plays nearly perfectly off of the fastball due to its vertical separation and has gotten a lot of early returns in terms of both whiff and chase. In his most recent start against Tennessee, it was his highest used pitch, earning a 36% whiff rate and a 60% chase rate. He’s throwing a cutter and a slider shape, the cutter in the high-80s with roughly 5-6 inches of IVB and 2-3 inches of horizontal break while the slider is in the low-80s with more tangible two-plane action. His low-80s curveball is used sparsely, lacking separation off of the slider.
Due to the prior command and pitchability, Reddemann was looking like a mid-round arm, but the added stuff on top of the fact that he’s competing in the power-4, he’s putting himself in the day one conversation. If this class was not so deep, he could be in the first round conversation by now, but it’s still a conversation that could take place at some point if he continues to post.
Mulivai Levu
A junior in his third year with the Bruins, Mulivai Levu has seen a steady progression throughout his career, but has really came out strong in 2026. A first baseman by trade, Levu already has a ceiling on his draft stock, but he’s making it really hard to ignore the bat.
Simply put, this is a bat you buy, potentially on day one. He’s hitting .439 with a .511 OBP and a 1.145 OPS through 47 plate appearances while striking out only 6.4% of the time. It was already a fairly well-rounded bat coming into the cycle, but it all of a sudden looks like one of the best hit tools in the college class without sacrificing any of the power upside. As a sophomore in 2025, it was a 60th percentile in-zone whiff rate and a 21st percentile chase rate, one of those aggressive, higher contact profiles. Fast forward to 2026, and Levu seems to have refined his approach a bit as he’s drawing more walks and striking out less. The 6.4% strikeout rate is down from 15.3% in 2025 and 27.3% in 2024 while the walk rate is up to 10.6%, up from 7.6% in 2025.
Levu is consistently finding the barrel and is spraying the ball all over the field. His most recent home run was a 112.1 mph shot off of Tennessee’s Tegan Kuhns, the Vols ace and the #50 ranked prospect on the Baseball Focus 2026 draft board. There is average to above-average juice in the bat and there’s more projection on his 6’1”, 205 pound frame, especially if he’s going to stay at first base defensively and lean into the offensive production. Levu is also a recent gold glove winner at first base, so he can pick it over there, possessing somewhat of a Tre Morgan-esque profile who was a third round draft pick in 2023. Levu can certainly land somewhere in the same group if he continues to hit at a high level.
