MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo return with a fresh July Draft mock, using Combine observations from Arizona

As MLB’s amateur talent evaluation heads deeper into crunch time, MLB Pipeline is publishing its newest mock draft ahead of the 2026 MLB Draft on July 11 and 12. The update, reported by MLB Pipeline writers Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo, arrives during the Draft Combine in Arizona, where teams can see a new wave of measurable data and on-field workouts that typically shape how prospects are viewed going into the summer selections.

The mock draft is part of a broader, ongoing series that MLB Pipeline has been running for roughly the past two months. Callis and Mayo have been alternating weekly on mock draft releases, creating a rolling picture of how draft boards can shift as the calendar moves toward the Draft itself. The alternating cadence also matters for fans tracking consensus, because each writer can emphasize different angles of the scouting process, from physical projection to performance translation.

The timing is also notable because the college baseball season has just reached its own peak. MLB Pipeline’s release notes that the NCAA national champions have been crowned, with Oklahoma highlighted in the announcement. While MLB teams do not draft from a single moment in time, a national championship can sharpen the spotlight on players whose draft stock often becomes a national talking point, even as scouts continue sorting prospects by tools, performance profile, and projection rather than tournament headlines alone.

The Arizona Combine element is the centerpiece of this mock draft update. The Draft Combine is designed to standardize and concentrate many of the scouting inputs teams consider, including physical testing and observational workouts that can help clarify how a player might fit into a professional development path. MLB Pipeline’s framing underscores that the mock draft is built to reflect what’s being learned during the Combine window, not just preseason estimates.

It is important to treat the mock draft as an informed forecast rather than a prediction with guarantees. Mock drafts are inherently sensitive to changes that can happen late in the process, including reassessments of athleticism, risk factors, and how prospects perform when they are evaluated against the same framework as their peers. The fact that this update is tied to current Combine intel reinforces the idea that boards can move even over short windows, particularly for players on the margin of the first tier of selections.

Looking ahead, the story of the July Draft will likely hinge on whether the Combine observations confirm what teams already believed about top prospects, and whether any players who are perceived as fit-to-ceiling moves into a clearer role. MLB Pipeline’s continued weekly alternation by Callis and Mayo suggests the publication expects meaningful shifts over time. For draft watchers, the next updates to watch will be any changes to the ordering and the grouping of prospects by perceived value, because those movement patterns often indicate what scouts think is truly separating the class.