Hunter Dietz has moved from a question mark to a name to watch near the top of the MLB Draft. The Arkansas left-hander could be taken in the first 37 picks in Philadelphia, a jump built on a junior season that turned his stock from intriguing to hard to ignore.
Dietz finished the year with a 3.57 ERA in 85 2/3 innings, striking out 131 and walking 31. He also earned All-America and All-SEC honors, and Baseball America ranked him No. 34 while put him 15th. That kind of range leaves no doubt that he is in the first-round conversation, even if his actual landing spot is still unsettled.
The search around Dietz now is tied to what he did in 2025 and to what Arkansas has done around him. Since 2019, the Razorbacks have had 30 pitchers drafted, including 22 in the first 10 rounds, and if Dietz goes in the first 37 picks, Arkansas would become only the 11th college program to have a pitcher selected in the first round in three straight years. Hagen Smith went fifth overall to the Chicago White Sox in 2024, then Gage Wood went 26th to the Philadelphia Phillies and Zach Root went 40th to the Los Angeles Dodgers last year.
Matt Hobbs said that kind of run shows a program is getting the right players, keeping them and helping them develop, and he added that Arkansas can win in different ways, including with transfer pitchers like Root. Dietz fits the other side of that same story. He stayed, got better and turned a difficult stretch into a draft year that has him sitting close to the top of the board.
That rise matters because it was not obvious not long ago. Dietz said last year was a big struggle mentally and physically while he tried to figure things out, and he had injury-plagued seasons in 2024 and 2025 before putting everything together. He said he does not think he would have had the same trust in another coaching staff, and he credited Arkansas for the development and trust that helped him put together the year he wanted. He said he gave his team a chance to win every time he was on the mound.
The next answer will come in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon, when the board decides whether Dietz is merely a first-round possibility or one of the first names called. If he is taken in the first 37 picks, Arkansas’s recent pitching run becomes something even rarer, and Dietz’s breakout becomes the reason it kept going. For readers tracking that path, Ryder Helfrick is part of the same first-round watch, with Dietz now the pitcher most likely to push Arkansas one step further.
