Age: 20 (05/21/2004)

Birthplace: Midland, TX

High School: Robert E. Lee HS - Midland, TX

Height/Weight: 6’8” 245 lbs

Year: Junior

Chase Shores is certainly one of the most imposing figures in the 2025 draft class, standing in at 6’8” and 245 pounds. He’s also a risky selection at the moment, having just come off of Tommy John surgery. Shores’s freshman year was cut short due to the injury after he delivered just 18.1 innings over four starts and seven total appearances. He showed a lot of promise early on, posting a 1.96 ERA. Prior to making it to campus at LSU, Shores was the top high school pitching prospect in his home state of Texas in 2022. Now as a junior, Shores has returned to the mound in hopes of being a day-one selection in the draft this July.

Despite the injury, Shores has seemingly picked right back up where he left off as a freshman in 2023. He’s thrown ten innings over two starts thus far in 2025, and has allowed just one run along the way with 13 strikeouts and just two walks - good for a 29.7 K-BB%. He now has a total of just 28.1 innings of college ball under his belt at this point, so workload will definitely be the biggest question mark for Shores for the remainder of the season.

What makes Shores special is his fastball/slider combination. His fastball is one of the best in college baseball as it has received a 70 grade, but believe it or not, it has room to improve further. The velocity on the pitch is what makes it great as he has ran it up as high as 100 mph, and averages anywhere between 95 to 98 mph. Shores comes from a three quarters arm slot, and paired with his natural above-average extension due to his height, the fastball plays up without the elite velocity. It has room to improve because of its shape as it doesn’t produce much IVB or HB. However, there was a similar draft prospect a few years ago that had the same concerns about his fastball - that pitcher just happened to be fellow LSU Tiger, Paul Skenes.

The slider is a 55 grade offering but has definitely played up thus far in 2025 as it has yielded great results. It works in the mid-80s and has a lot of sweeping action and depth. In his first outing of the season, it produced whiffs at a 71.4% rate. I believe he would benefit from the pitch even more if he brought it’s usage% to the same level of his fastball. He currently is throwing his fastball roughly 60% of the time while his slider comes in about 25% of the time. Throwing both pitches about 40% of the time while flashing an arm side pitch would definitely make hitting off of Shores much more of a challenge.

Shores is working on a sinker and changeup as his other secondary pitch. The sinker comes in just a tick slower than his fastball, while the changeup sits in the upper-80s and produces nearly 20 inches of HB at times. Both can certainly be plus pitches with more refinement.

The stuff for Shores is without a doubt first round stuff, and if he seems to adjust to a starter’s workload coming off of Tommy John surgery, his name is definitely one that can be called pretty early on in this year’s draft.