MLB 2025 Draft Profile: Marek Houston

MLB 2025 Draft Profile: Marek Houston

Scouting grades: Hit: 50 | Power: 45 | Run: 55 | Arm: 55 | Field: 60 | Overall: 55

Marek Houston initially wasn’t a highly valued recruit. That was until he put the baseball world on notice by winning the Wake Forest starting shortstop position as a Freshman. Helping the team finish third in the College World Series in the process.

All of this earned Houston a Cape Cod League All-Star last summer, and he has shown consistent improvement with his game.

Most notable has been his offensive overhaul. Initially, Houston had a contact over impact mentality. Making him great at making contact and giving him great bat control. But meant he wasn’t hitting the ball hard often enough for it to matter.

Recently, however, he has gained some more muscle and begun hunting more home runs and power in general. It turned Marek Houston, a middling prospect with a great glove, into a potential generational shortstop.

His added muscle could see him find 15 home runs a year in the big leagues. Which would be more than enough prediction for the defense he will be giving you.

You can see the defensive grades, and many scouts believe those numbers should be even higher. He is incredibly smooth at short and shows a natural feel for the positions. He has the arm to make pretty much any throw he could need and uses his plus speed to cover a lot of ground in the infield.

If the bat never develops for Houston, he shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a job as a utilityman. Marek Houston is going to be a defensive wizard no matter where he ends up. It will just be about developing some kind of bat you can hide late in the lineup.

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What is good is that Marek Houston has already shown an ability to adapt his game to become a better ball player. An invaluable trait when making your way through the minor leagues. A team will see that and likely assume it will allow them to further mold him into the hitter he needs to be.

At best, I think he can be very much like JJ Hardy. Maybe never quite hitting 25 or 30 home runs, but a defensively minded shortstop with some sneaky pop, opposing teams will need to respect. If the bat doesn’t come around, he can be an Andrelton Simmons-type player. Only there for his glove and the occasional base hit.

He seems like a player who is always looking to improve his game and I never like betting against those kinds of guys. Marek Houston will figure it out, simply because he won’t allow himself not to.

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