Cruz follows family to pros
After being drafted by the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, Rice junior infielder Trei Cruz didn’t take long to set his sights on his next target: father Jose Cruz Jr., who spent 12 years in major leagues.
“I said, ‘I’m coming,’ ” said Trei, who was taken with the first pick of the third round (73rd overall) in the Major League Baseball draft. “I’m coming for the record, and you’re going to see my name up there on a baseball card soon.”
That promise extends to his grandfather and 19-year major leaguer Jose Cruz Sr.
Cruz was selected in the 35th round out of Episcopal High School by the Astros in 2017 and in the 37th round as a sophomore-eligible prospect by the Washington Nationals in 2019. This time, he is signing to start a pro career.
Cruz’s profile steadily grew with Rice.
In 2019, he made second team All-Conference USA, playing in 58 of the team’s 59 games. He tied for 15th in the nation with six triples, the eighth-highest single-season total in school history and the most by any Rice player in the last decade. Cruz also led the 2019 Owls with 121 total bases and 50 runs.
Cruz was trending upward in a coronavirus-shortened 2020 season. He was second on the team with a .328 batting average and tallied a team-high seven doubles with nine runs, 18 walks and eight RBIs.
Cruz described an intimate moment with his father after being drafted.
“He was full of emotion, so he couldn’t even say anything,” Cruz said. “But I just told him, ‘I love you and thank you for everything.’ Me, him and my grandpa all hugged. I was like, ‘It starts now. I love you guys.’ I can’t thank them enough for spending all that time with me as a kid, and I’m sure even now they’re going to continue to keep working with me.”
Kingwood’s Winn goes to Cardinals
Masyn Winn went straight to his mother Tiffany Rawson after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced his name with the 54th overall pick in the second round of the 2020 MLB draft on Thursday afternoon.
Winn hugged his mother, and his emotions were running high when he found out that the St. Louis Cardinals made his professional dreams come true.
Winn committed to play college baseball at Arkansas but plans to sign a major league contract with the Cardinals and sign with Roc Nation. The slot value Winn is $1,338,500.
The Kingwood standout is excited the Cardinals will let him pitch and play shortstop.
“They know I want to do both,” Winn said. “If they want me to transition to one position, that’s fine with me, but for them to give me a chance is great. I’m going to do whatever to get to the bigs as fast as possible.”
Romo had feeling about Rockies
This hasn’t been the year The Woodlands catcher Drew Romo envisioned.
Despite that disappointment, Romo and the entire Highlanders program had something else to celebrate Wednesday. The talented switch-hitting catcher became the third first-round pick in school history — joining Kyle Drabek (2006) and Jameson Taillon (2010) — when the Colorado Rockies selected him 35th overall (Compensatory A) in the MLB draft.
“We were in contact (with the Rockies) a lot,” Romo said during a Thursday conference call. “My family and I, we had a really good feeling about the Rockies. We loved the organization, we did a lot of research, and we had a really good feeling about the Rockies.”
The assigned signing bonus value for Romo’s selection is about $2.1 million. He also has the option of continuing his career at the collegiate level after signing with LSU last November. As of Thursday afternoon, no official decision had been made.
Episcopal’s Witt opts to play at UT
Episcopal shortstop and righthanded pitcher Tanner Witt will play college baseball at Texas.
Witt considered offers from multiple MLB teams after Wednesday’s first round, but none was strong enough to pull him away from Austin. He can reenter the draft after three years in college.
“There were a lot of teams that reached out with a lot of interest, but from the get-go, it was going to take a lot to get me away from the University of Texas,” Witt said. “In the end, when me and my family sat down and talked about it, we just thought with all the offers we had, we thought going to the University of Texas and getting a head start on a degree and developing for three years was the best fit for me not only as a person on the field but as a person off the field.”
The 6-6, 205-pound Witt’s two-way ability is attractive to pro scouts. He reached 94 mph on radar guns this season and hit .512 in 14 games.