McCafferty '26 Named 2024-25 Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year

In its 40th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade announced Bradley McCafferty '26 is the 2024-25 Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year.

Gatorade Player of the Year is the top honor in high school sports, celebrating the nation’s best high school athletes for their success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. The award distinguishes McCafferty as Massachusetts' best high school baseball player, and he joins an impressive group of alumni that spans CEOs, coaches and star athletes such as Gary Sheffield (1985-86, Hillsborough High School, Florida), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Konnor Griffin (2023-24, Jackson Preparatory School, Mississippi).

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound junior catcher led the Cougars to a 20-2 record this past season. McCafferty batted .367 with two home runs, 23 RBI and 22 runs scored, posting a .474 on-base percentage, .550 slugging percentage and1.024 OPS. He also threw out 36.8 percent of would-be base-stealers, cutting down seven runners in 19 attempts. A two-time All-New England Preparatory School Athletic Council selection, McCafferty is ranked as New England’s No. 4 prospect in the Class of 2026 by Prep Baseball Report and No. 3 in Massachusetts by Perfect Game.

McCafferty has volunteered locally at a rehabilitation center and as a youth baseball coach. “McCafferty was very good against us,” said Phillips Exeter Academy head coach Tim Mitropolous. “He’s a stud and a very good player. First-class kid as well.” McCafferty has maintained a 3.47 weighted GPA in the classroom.

He has verbally committed to play baseball at Duke University beginning in the fall of 2026.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states across 12 different high school sports – football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field – and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.

The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport. As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $5.6 million in grants to winners across more than 2,000 organizations.