Baseball America Ranks Brendan Lawson No. 1 2027 Prospect
Florida baseball infielder Brendan Lawson is the No. 1 prospect in the 2027 MLB Draft, according to Baseball America.
The college baseball outlet also featured the Gators’ Aidan King (No. 10), Jackson Barberi (No. 46) and Joshua Whritenour (No. 50) in its rankings.
The rising sophomore, Lawson, though, is coming off a stellar freshman campaign, hitting .317 with a .939 OPS in 60 games. Lawson hit 10 home runs, three being grand slams, with 61 RBIs. In turn, he earned Freshman All-American and Freshman All-SEC honors, with two SEC Freshman of the Week nods during the season. He then earned first-team Cape Cod All-League honors this summer along with Florida teammates Caden McDonald and Christian Rodriguez. Lawson hit .333 with a .917 OPS and four homers in 23 games. His performance adds up. The St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the 19th round of the 2024 MLB Draft, but Lawson ultimately came to Florida looking to up his draft stock.
King, also a rising sophomore, was a unanimous first-team Freshman All-American and joined Lawson on the SEC All-Freshman team. In 73 ⅓ innings, he had a 2.58 ERA, the lowest by a Florida pitcher over a full season since Brady Singer in 2018. He finished the season 7-2 with a .213 batting average against (BAA) and 79 strikeouts. King also set a Florida freshman record with four SEC weekly honors, receiving SEC Freshman of the Week three times and SEC Pitcher of the Week on March 3.
Barberi went 2-1 in his freshman year, finishing with a 4.45 ERA across 32 ⅓ innings. He struck out 41 batters while walking 19 with a .291 BAA.
Whritenour did not play during the 2025 season due to injury, but still made BA’s top 50 list of prospects for the 2027 MLB Draft, likely due to being a top-100 recruit nationally and the No. 4 RHP in Florida in the 2024 class.
While baseball season seems far away, the Gators will host their first open fall practice on Oct. 6 at Condron Ballpark. They will also have two fall exhibitions: Oct. 31 against Jacksonville and Nov. 9 against Georgia Southern, before the season opener against UAB on Feb. 13.
Category: Baseball, College Baseball, Gator Sports, Gators Baseball, MLB, SEC
