2025 Draft Prospect - SS - Marek Houston - Wake Forest

 

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2024/11/1/2025-mlb-draft-top-75-collegiate-prospects?s=03  –

Marek Houston, SS - wake forest

Prospects Live Ranking - #21

Marek Houston was one of the standout offensive breakouts this past season, establishing himself as one of the most refined bats in the 2025 class.  As the leadoff man for Wake, Houston displays a plus eye at the plate with the ability to spray the ball to all fields.  His whiff rates dropped significantly from his freshman to sophomore season, and he posted one of the nation's top zone contact rates at 93%.  Perhaps the best aspect of his game is his defense.  Houston has a plus arm and great range for the position that will keep him at shortstop come pro ball.  Over the recent summer, he played for Bourne in the Cape Cod League, where he stood out with a .306 batting average across 27 games and earned a spot as an All-Star.  His power is below average, though with adding roughly 10 pounds of weight, expect to see a jump in the extra base hits this coming season.

 

https://godeacs.com/sports/baseball/roster/marek-houston/8070 -

Sophomore (2024)

Third Team All-ACC Selection... Appeared in 54 games with 53 starts at shortstop... Led the team with a .326 batting average... Recorded 72 hits, 39 RBIs, and eight home runs... Ranked second on the team in doubles (16)... Recorded two RBI singles against Fordham (Feb. 16) and Akron (Feb. 18) during opening weekend... Notched five hits and four RBIs in the series against Dayton (Feb. 23-25)... Hit a grand slam in the first game of the doubleheader against Binghamton (March 2)... Recorded a nine game hit streak (March 15-April 5) with six multi-hit games during that streak... Hit an RBI single as part of a four-hit performance at Liberty (March 26)... Recorded four RBIs, five hits and a home run in the series against North Carolina (March 29-31)... Tallied three hits, including a two-run home run, against UNCG (April 2)... Notched two doubles and a home run in a seven-hit series at Boston College... Recorded an 11-game hit streak (April 30-May 17) and drove in a run in five consecutive games (May 1-9)... Hit a triple and a grand slam to help earn the sweep against Clemson (May 12)... Hit a home run in back-to-back games at the ACC Tournament against Pitt (May 22) and North Carolina (May 24) to help the Demon Deacons advance to the ACC semifinals... Recorded an RBI single in the NCAA Regional against hosts East Carolina (June 1).

 

https://www.prospectslive.com/prospects-live/2024/8/27/switzs-report-recap-cape-cod-best-of-the-best-prospects -

Cape Numbers: .306/.465/.329 (.794), 2 2B, 8 RBIs, 17 Rs, 7 SB, 26 BB (22.8 BB%), 21 K

(18.4 K%)

Switz’s Notes: From the first time I watched Bourne over the summer, my eyes were glued to watching Houston in the field. He is a natural athlete on the diamond and is one of the guys who has a higher ceiling than most in the 2025 draft. This year, he was a key contributor for the Bourne franchise to make another appearance in the Cape Cod Championship game with his run-producing abilities at leadoff and stellar defense. Nightly, over the summer, Houston produced web gem-after-web gem defensive plays that showed that he can stay on the left side of the diamond for the next level. Many other talking heads will criticize his bat for the next level due to it not producing the batted ball metrics that the new-age fans and gurus want to see.  However, it isn’t as bad as this crowd wants to voice as he displayed a good feel for the zone and protects anything inside his hands (a skill many hitters over the summer seemed to lack that is desired by scouts). Further, he showed good abilities to hit to all fields and not let the Cape’s BABIP inflation dictate his hitting abilities while taking walks and not forcing a play to be made when nothing was there. To quote Aaron Rodgers, the new age fans and gurus need to “relax” regarding Houston’s bat profile because Houston has advanced intangibles that metrics cannot measure and should be alright.

When drawing up a projection on Houston, it is tough to forecast what he will become. At first, I thought he might be a glove-first dude with below-average pop that he currently shows and could build into being a Dansby Swanson-like SS. However, when watching him play and looking at his build, there is more growth left in him as he has an unorthodox build of a large upper body frame and a smaller lower half. Between working on his mechanics in rookie development to add bat speed and going to the weight room for him to add muscle, I think there's a chance he could surpass the average 15 - 20 HRs (which is upside 45 FV and fringy 50 FV grades that vary based on organization grading and modeling) that Swanson averages each year (I know that Swanson crushed over that between 2021 - 2024 but, I see that as a too small of a sample size to call Swanson a genuine 55-60 grade power guy).