ROCKIES SNAP UP WUNDERKIND SHORTSTOP
Rodgers had been on radar for years
Lake Mary (Fla.) High shortstop Brendan Rodgers was such a precocious player in Central Florida that former Colorado Rockies outfielder Dante Bichette saw Rodgers play when he was 6 and predicted he would be a first-round pick.
A dozen years later, Rodgers sat in the third-base dugout of MLB Network’s Studio 42 just before the Rockies’ No. 3 overall pick and leaned back in his chair, his feet on the top step of the dugout. He twisted his torso in a half-stretch and looked as comfortable in this dugout as in any of the dugouts he had inhabited in his illustrious amateur career.
When Commissioner Rob Manfred announced that Rodgers was the Rockies’ selection, it elicited a huge roar from a group of extended family and former coaches that rolled 22 deep. Rodgers stood up and hugged his parents. He revealed later that he learned a minute before the pick that he knew it was coming, fulfilling Bichette’s prophecy for the team where the four-time AllStar made his name.
“I really have no words right now,” Rodgers said, calling it a dream come true.
Baseball America touted the 6-1, 200-pound shortstop as the draft’s top talent, though he followed two other shortstops, Vanderbilt’s Dansby Swanson (Arizona Diamondbacks) and LSU’s Alex Bregman (Houston Astros), in the draft order.
Several scouts traveled to Rodgers’ Orlando-area high school to see him play one afternoon this spring, but the game was postponed because of rain. His coach, Allen Tuttle told him, “You better hit; this might be the only time they can see you.”
Tuttle crouched in rain gear by the mound, staying as dry as he could while flipping balls to the pitcher. Rodgers swung 35 times and hit 19 for home runs.
“I never turned around,” Tuttle said. “You could just hear it right off his bat when they’re gone.”
Tuttle’s advice proved prophetic: One scout in attendance was John Cederberg of the Rockies.
There was only one downside to Rodgers’ power display: “We’ve got a pond right behind left field,” Tuttle said. “Oh my gosh, we lost a bunch of baseballs. The Rockies brought me a bag of baseballs to make up for it.”
Since he was 14, Rodgers played travel ball for an Orlando Scorpions program that previously produced AllStars such as Chicago White Sox pitcher Chris Sale, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke and Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Scorpions coach Matt Gerber had heard about the wunderkind but was surprised when he first saw the gangly teen.
“Then you saw him pick up a bat, and you knew it was going to be something special,” Gerber said. “His stage of development — he was at 14 and is at 18 — is the most advanced that we’ve seen.”
Rodgers would go to the Scorpions’ 13,000-square-foot facility, with batting cages and a weight room, to work out at 5 a.m. before school most days. He’d often return later in the day, even to hit more after games. It’s a work ethic befitting a youngster who, as a 6-year-old, wrote “I want to play professional baseball” on kindergarten worksheets.
That’s how he filled out to his current stature, but Rodgers’ power has always been prodigious. His brother, Nate, 28, remembers being 17 and having to bring his then-7-year-old brother to youth ball practice. The team needed help shagging, so Nate played the outfield — and had to turn around and chase one off his brother’s bat.
“He hits a ball over my head and embarrasses the crap out of me,” Nate said with a laugh.
Nate praised his brother Brendan, saying he exudes class.
“He does everything the right way,” Nate said. “He works hard. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He listens. He takes criticism.”
Even from his older brother? “Absolutely,” Nate said, “though he might not like to admit that.”
Rodgers listened to legendary former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, with whom he spoke for 10 minutes last week in a meeting facilitated by Casey Close, who works for the agency advising Rodgers and was Jeter’s longtime agent.
“He gave me unreal tips and stuff I’m never going to forget,” Rodgers said. “He told me, ‘You never know who’s watching. Always play the game hard. Make sure you enjoy and have fun these next few days — it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ ”
Even though another former high school shortstop, the Astros’ Carlos Correa, was to debut that same evening just three years after he was selected No. 1 overall, Rodgers modestly did not try to predict that he would follow the same path. He emphasized the need to play the game the right way and stay healthy.
“While doing that, success kind of comes with it as long as you’re doing everything right,” he said.
Former Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd, who was in the post when the club selected incumbent star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in 2005, was on set for MLB Network and called it a great decision for the organization.
“It’s about taking the best player,” O’Dowd said. “It’s too hard to predict what’s going to happen.”