Princeton baseball’s Sean Episcope ’27, a standout pitcher whose sophomore season was cut short due to injury, was the first Ivy League player to hear his name called in this week’s 2025 MLB Draft. Taken at 155th overall, Episcope is the highest-selected Princeton player since David Hale ’11 was taken in 2009 by the Atlanta Braves in the third round of the draft.
After being selected by the Milwaukee Brewers in the fifth round of the draft, Episcope will now be able to hone his elite skills with an organization long lauded as one of the best at pitching development in the entire league. Should he succeed, he will be the first Princeton player to crack the big leagues since Mike Ford ’15 in 2019, and the first pitcher to do so since Danny Barnes ’12 and Matt Bowman ’14 both debuted in 2016.
“I am of course very proud of all our players as they move forward in their careers and their lives,” Princeton Head Coach Scott Bradley told The Daily Princetonian after Episcope was drafted. “However, as a former MLB player, it is so very special and rewarding to see some of our players have the opportunity to live out their dreams and turn pro!”
In two years with the Tigers, Episcope battled serious injury trouble while also flashing immense potential. The righty took a gap year between high school and college to undergo Tommy John surgery, a common procedure for pitchers that repairs or reconstructs the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in the throwing elbow. After making a full recovery, Episcope joined the baseball team’s Class of 2027 and enjoyed a healthy, though inconsistent, first year.
Then, early in the 2025 season, Episcope underwent another UCL operation, this time receiving an internal brace that stabilizes the ligament against further injury. The surgery, which carries a recovery time of over a year, knocked Episcope out of what was shaping up to be an excellent sophomore season.
Before the UCL injury, Episcope dazzled across four excellent starts, pitching 20 innings to the tune of a 3.15 earned run average. In between strong performances against Miami, VCU, and Liberty, he put up his best performance of the season against perennial baseball powerhouse Wake Forest. Striking out nine across five strong innings, Episcope shut down a Demon Deacon lineup that boasted three hitters selected ahead of him in this year’s MLB Draft.
“He has developed more of a game plan since arriving at Princeton,” pitching coach Joe Haumacher told the ‘Prince’ when asked about his star righty. “But applying that talent differently to the next level has been the key.”
The fact that Episcope managed to rise so high in the draft despite a lengthy injury history speaks to just how much talent and potential the hard-throwing righty boasts. Episcope’s fastball tops out at 97 miles per hour, a top-end velocity that would be above average for a starting pitcher in the big leagues. His curveball has over 3000 rotations per minute, an elite reading in a stat that tracks how much spin a pitcher can put on the ball.
Episcope’s fastball grades out as a 55 on MLB Pipeline’s scouting scale, indicating that scouts project it to be an above-average major league pitch. His curveball and slider both received marks of 50, a score that projects as exactly league-average. Such scores are indicative of a solid prospect, but the uncertainty and lack of college track record created by his injury history means that his actual ceiling could be far higher.
The Brewers, one of MLB’s savviest franchises, were willing to bet on that potential and took him with the 155th overall pick of the draft. In recent years, the Brewers have earned a well-deserved reputation as a pitching factory, developing starters from established all-stars Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff to emerging prospects like Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson.
With an analytically-focused pitching lab set up by former general manager David Stearns — considered one of the best in the game — the team believes it can take Episcope and mold him into a star, just as it has done with so many other draft prospects over the past decade.
“He can manipulate a baseball in any way he wants,” Haumacher said of Episcope. “Sometimes that’s a curse in simplifying a game plan, but it gives him plenty of tools to get batters out in pro ball.”
Of course, Episcope is a long way away from finding MLB success. His 2026 will likely be spent rehabbing from his internal brace surgery, pushing his timeline back to a potential MLB debut in 2028 or later. However, should he choose to sign, he will be set up for success in an organization that boasts resources and a track record few in the big leagues can match.
Joe Uglialoro is an assistant Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections@dailyprincetonian.com.
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