The Dodgers opened their Monday by taking Aidan West, a high school shortstop from Maryland with their fourth-round selection of the 2025 MLB Draft, the 135th overall pick in the draft.
The 6’2, 210-pound shortstop from Long Reach High School in Columbia, Maryland and earned first-team all-state honors. West was ranked the 97th-best prospect in the draft by ESPN, 123rd by MLB Pipeline, and was ranked 169th by Baseball America.
From his Baseball America write-up:
West takes a direct path to the ball with a level bat path that should allow him to pepper plenty of line drives to both gaps, and while he doesn’t have plus raw power, he should have the strength and bat speed to develop average home run upside. West did show some swing-and-miss tendencies against better pitching in the 2024 circuit that will need to be addressed—and perhaps more specifically against quality secondaries—but there’s nothing mechanically that stands out as a glaring red flag and he does a nice job timing up velocity.
West, a left-handed hitter, has a college commitment to North Carolina State, where his grandfather played.
From Harry Lichtman at Sports Illustrated:
“I never got to meet him,” West said. “He passed away before I was born. But my father and grandmother have always told me stories about him playing and what kind of person he was. I write his initials in the dirt before every at-bat. I’ve been doing that even before I committed to N.C. State, but him playing there was big for me.”
The 135th pick has a recommended slot value of $544,900.