With the 2026 MLB Draft approaching, Florida baseball’s roster for next season will have a clearer picture.
The two-day event begins with four rounds on Saturday, July 11, and the final 16 rounds conclude on Sunday, July 12.
As of now, Florida has at least five players on its current roster who could be drafted. Additionally, four of the Gators’ high school signees also participated in the MLB Draft combine, signaling that UF could lose some of its incoming signees.
To better understand how the draft could impact Florida’s roster, The Gainesville Sun spoke with an anonymous MLB scout about the Gators’ top draft-eligible players.
The 2025 draft saw 576 of the 615 players drafted sign with their MLB teams, the most in the 20-round draft era. Notably, 309 of the 311 draftees picked in the first 10 rounds opted to sign.
Florida’s top prospect of this year’s draft class is Liam Peterson, who is expected to go in the first round. Prior to the season, some projections featured Peterson as a fringe top 10 pick, but he has now settled somewhere in the middle of the first round.
Peterson registered a 4.59 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP, while recording 111 strikeouts against 36 walks in 84.1 innings of work in 16 starts.
“I think a lot of people may have felt like he was a top 10 or 15 pick when the season started, incorrectly.” the scout said. “There have always been questions on how well his fastball plays.
“I think he has settled into an area of the draft that’s still going to be in the first round. I think he had outings where he proved he can differentiate four pitches, sometimes five, and when you are throwing in the mid to upper 90s with multiple options to get hitters out.”
Florida’s center fielder and leadoff hitter, Kyle Jones, has also raised his draft stock significantly. The redshirt sophomore, who missed most of the 2025 season with a shoulder injury, bounced back with a productive year. At the plate, he recorded a .317 average, 16 doubles, six home runs, 48 RBIs and stole 17 bases.
Despite the injury, it’s believed that Jones could get taken on the first day of the draft.
”Jones has been a bit of an enigma, I think, to the entire industry throughout the course of the last six to eight months,” the scout said. “The old school scouting mantra is if you’ve seen it once, it’s in there. I think the teams that believe in that still pull him off the board relatively early on Day 1, but there could be some others that are just a little more reticent to project on a 21-year-old with a little medical history.”
Both pitchers, Luke McNeillie and Russell Sandefer, each find themselves in similar positions, with each having the best-case scenario as cusp Day 1 picks.
As a right-handed reliever, McNeillie held a career-best 3.97 ERA and recorded 48 strikeouts to 17 walks in 18 appearances. However, shoulder soreness led to McNeillie missing nearly a month of the season and he had 10 fewer appearances than the previous season.
Sandefer made 19 appearances and 12 starts for Florida in his lone season with the Gators. The right-hander recorded a 4.42 ERA, 60 strikeouts and 22 walks in 57 innings of work.
“Both McNeillie and Sandefer have no doubt major league arms, but kind of like Peterson, how much can they pitch with their fastball at the next level may determine how high they can go,” the scout said. “The fact that they both have reliever risk— f or that matter, Peterson probably does too — I do think maybe depresses their value. I think somewhere in the middle rounds, they are both going to have an opportunity to sign.”
The biggest question mark to return is infielder Ethan Surowiec, who re-signed with Florida Victorious but did not withdraw his name from the MLB Draft.
Surowiec started all 62 games for Florida as he swapped between first and third base. In his first season at Florida, Surowiec batted .317, with 14 doubles, 12 homers and drove in 63 runs. Surowiec now has three years of eligibility with the recent passing of the five-for-five rule.
“I could see a case that he would come back, but I think someone would take a chance on his power,” said the scout about whether Surowiec should return to UF. “His makeup is also elite. I think it’s a risky bet for the player (to return).
“I think if you are making that decision based purely on what the NIL figure is or the fact that you have the fifth year of eligibility, I think in some respects, not all, you are missing the point, which is beginning your professional career and getting a step closer to the major leagues sooner rather than later.”
Florida’s main high school prospects in the mix to be drafted are Kevin Roberts Jr., Brady Harris, Brady Snow, Colin White and newly signed Braylen Montgomery. Yet despite the high number of high school prospects, there’s confidence that all will set foot on the Gators’ campus.
“Usually the Gators guys do a good job of getting them to school. In my opinion, the class they have coming in, they kind of nailed. They aren’t high-end draft players, but they are going to be good when they come to Gainesville.”
Reach Florida Gators writer Andrew Abadie at AAbadie@usatodayco.com or on X (formerly Twitter) at @AndrewAbadie. You can also find him on Facebook at Andrew Abadie Sports Reporter or on Instagram @andrewabadie_sports.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: An MLB scout’s view of Florida Baseball’s 2026 draft class
Reporting by Andrew Abadie, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Andrew Abadie, Gainesville Sun | USA TODAY Network
