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A huge part of why the Los Angeles Dodgers are so good is their excellent player development system.
Though the Dodgers signed some of their big-name stars in free agency, they've got homegrown stars all over the roster too, like Will Smith and Clayton Kershaw. They also consistently have one of the top-ranked farm systems in the sport, which enables trades like the Mookie Betts blockbuster.
So even though the Dodgers have plenty of surplus talent in 2025 as they push for back-to-back championships, it's worth keeping an eye on their pursuits in the upcoming draft, because whoever they take with their first pick will become an important piece of the organization's future.
The Dodgers' first pick isn't until 40th overall, because they exceeded the highest luxury tax threshold by more than $40 million last season. But they'll undoubtedly still come away with a talented prospect.
On Wednesday, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel predicted that the Dodgers would select California high school third baseman/outfielder Quentin Young with pick number 40.
"Young, nephew of Dmitri and Delmon Young, is tied to the Dodgers and Padres and has lots of late momentum despite his high whiff rates in the spring and last summer," McDaniel wrote.
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"That's due to his gargantuan upside as a 6-foot-6 infielder with plus-plus raw power that might be 80-grade one day; he'll be moving up in the update of my top 150 rankings."
Eighty-grade power, for those unfamiliar, is reserved for gargantuan sluggers like Aaron Judge who can sleepwalk to 40-homer seasons in the big leagues. Young currently merits a 60 grade in MLB.com's pre-draft evaluation.
And this is getting way too far ahead of things, but if the Dodgers added a hitter with that kind of power to the lineup, it would certainly help cushion the blow of losing Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freddie Freeman to Father Time.
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