Two Fairfax County natives are a step closer to achieving their professional baseball dreams after being chosen in the 2025 MLB draft.
James Quinn-Irons, a Reston resident who currently attends and plays for George Mason University, was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays in the draft’s fifth round on Monday (July 14). He was the 147th overall pick.
McLean is also represented in this year’s draft, with the Seattle Mariners selecting McLean High School graduate and Virginia Tech student Griffin Stieg in the 18th round with the 542nd overall pick.
A graduate of South Lakes High School, Quinn-Irons concluded his Seahawks career with a standout senior year, hitting .471 with six home runs and earning Concorde Conference Player of the Year, among other honors, according to his GMU bio.
Now an outfielder and computer science major at Mason, his offensive skills were tempered by high strikeout and miss rates during his sophomore year, when he first became eligible for the draft, but after “some serious adjustments,” he finished his junior year with an impressive .419/.523/.734 line, MLB’s draft tracker says.
That performance helped the Patriots secure a postseason spot this spring, though they fell short in the Atlantic 10 championship game against Rhode Island at Capital One Park in Tysons.
“I used to get wrapped up in stats, but now it’s more about the process — whether I’ve been patient, worked the count, and done the little things,” Quinn-Irons said in a GMU press release on his team’s championship bid. “You can’t always control getting a hit or driving someone in, but you can control your approach. It’s just a mindset.”
In addition to being named the A-10 Player of the Year, Quinn-Irons became the first athlete in GMU’s history to become a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which is given every year to the country’s best amateur baseball player. He was also invited to the 2025 MLB Draft combine, held June 17-21 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona, for the nation’s top prospects.
“James is a special talent who hits for power and average, and uses the entire field,” said George Mason head coach Shawn Camp, a former MLB pitcher himself. “He has a strong arm and runs the bases very well, and he’s a leader on and off the field. He has trusted the process here at George Mason from day one and we are all looking forward to watching him at the professional level.”
An outfielder and pitcher who just finished his junior year at Virginia Tech, Stieg was born in Fairfax in 2004 and graduated from McLean High School in 2022 after helping the Highlanders to a 17-7 record and a Liberty District tournament championship. He also played football and basketball in high school.
Improvements in his pitching abilities put him on scouts’ radar for the MLB draft that year, but Stieg was eager to go to college at Virginia Tech and opted to stick to that path after fielding potential offers to turn pro out of high school, the Sun Gazette reported at the time.
After mostly pitching in relief as a freshman, Stieg became a starting pitcher for the Hokies as a sophomore and showed enough promise “to generate buzz” for his junior year, MLB’s draft tracker says. However, he had to undergo Tommy John surgery at the end of last season and was ultimately unable to pitch this year.
The limited college experience also contributed to Stieg dropping down in the draft, but his pitching arsenal, led by a “two-seam sinking fastball that has extreme run to it,” suggests he has the “makings of a back-end starter,” scouting reports said.
Stieg’s older brother, Drew, was also a standout baseball player at McLean High who went on to play for George Mason. His death from a drug overdose in 2023 led the family to establish the Drew Stieg Aspiring Wellness Program, a nonprofit dedicated to mental health education and awareness particularly among teens and student-athletes.
“He shaped me to be the person I am today,” Griffin Stieg said of his brother in a story for Virginia Tech. “Things he has taught me contribute to how I play. He taught me work ethic, how to show up and how to play the game the right way.”
If he signs with the Mariners, Stieg will join fellow Fairfax County Public Schools graduate Jonny Farmelo, who was drafted out of Westfield High School in 2023. The Centreville native is currently playing for the Everett AquaSox, the Seattle team’s high-A minor league affiliate.
Farmelo was one of two FCPS graduates drafted in the first round that year, along with James Madison High School’s Bryce Eldridge, who was picked 16th overall by the San Francisco Giants.
