DREAM Series plants college chemistry before the first pitch
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Monday marked the end of the DREAM Series in Arizona, although some of the teammates will see each other again very soon.
The ninth annual baseball-development experience, designed to help diversify the talent pool of minority players, features more than 80 predominantly African American high school pitchers and catchers from more than 15 states and Canada.
College recruiters already like what they see in this group.
Three prospects from the 2026 DREAM Series have committed to play ball at Texas Tech. Two DREAM teammates are committed to Miami, two to Vanderbilt and four others will share a future dugout at Louisiana State University.
• More about the MLB Dream Series
“It’s crazy that kids all over the country end up in one spot and compete together,” said Samir Mohammed, 18, from Tampa, Fla., who was also a DREAM participant in 2025. “It’s also good to know each other here and create a bond here so as soon as we get to [LSU] camp, we just roll.”
Mohammed, a junior, will eventually find DREAM teammates Devyn Downs, 18, a junior (of Sterlington, La.), senior Anthony Murphy, 18, (Corona, Calif.) and senior Dylan Minnatee, 17, (Elk Grove, Calif.) in the same Tigers dugout in Baton Rouge, La., in the near future.
“I’ve known Murph and Dylan for about two years, just playing throughout the summer circuit and stuff. It’s really cool just to know that we’re gonna end up in college together,” Mohammed said. “I’m pretty close with all three of them. That’s been really cool just thinking about how we can all be on the same college team going for a College World Series.”
Downs is a veteran of MLB development programs, particularly those committed to developing talent in minority communities. This weekend at the Angels’ Spring Training complex in Tempe marked Downs’ second time with the DREAM Series between stints with the MLB ID Tour, the Area Code Games, and two different rosters with the Hank Aaron Invitational.
Downs knows what the elite instructional program opportunities are all about.
“Learning, listening, [getting] better,” he said.
The fact that all four DREAM veterans will play Division I ball together in the SEC only adds to the true spirit of the program that is celebrated every Martin Luther King Jr. weekend.
“It’s like a brotherhood already,” Downs said. “Before we even get there, we already know everybody, and we’re close and everything. It’s already like a brotherhood before we even get on campus.”
The number of African American players in MLB is trending upward, in large part because of youth development programs that not only bring the game to kids at a younger age but with noticeable results, said LaTroy Hawkins, who enjoyed a 21-year career in the Majors from 1995-2015 and returned to Arizona this weekend to coach in his eighth DREAM Series.
He was hardly surprised at the college recruits.
“I saw it grow from kids who could barely catch a ground ball to guys coming at us and we’re saying, ‘Oh, he’ll be a first-rounder,’” Hawkins said.
Hawkins grew up in Gary, Ind., in the ’70s and ’80s and discovered the game through his grandparents’ and his mom’s devotion to the nearby Cubs. When the young Hawkins got home from school, he would watch Cubs afternoon games on TV (“I got a chance to see big Lee Smith come in and pitch”) then catch the White Sox night game broadcasts.
“I had the best of both worlds,” he said. “That was my introduction to it.”
At the DREAM Series, Hawkins was quick to single out the contributions of MLB executives Tony Reagins (chief baseball development officer), Del Matthews (senior vice president of baseball development) and Kindu Jones (manager of baseball development) for growing the game in minority communities.
Young prospects at the DREAM Series have come a long way since Hawkins was drafted by the Twins in the seventh round as an 18-year-old in 1991, he added.
“If Del and Kindu and Tony would’ve come to see me [play] at that age, they would have definitely not invited me [to the DREAM Series], that’s for sure,” Hawkins laughed.