Everybody has their very own Enrique Bradfield Jr. origin story — the second they realized he was “different” than regular ballplayers.
His faculty coach remembers Bradfield’s pace and competitiveness throughout his first fall at Vanderbilt. An Orioles scout remembers the outfielder’s skill to vary a recreation throughout his sophomore 12 months at American Heritage School in Florida. His highschool coach will always remember seeing an 11-year-old Bradfield patrolling heart subject throughout a journey ball tryout.
But maybe nobody knew Bradfield, the Orioles’ first-round decide within the 2023 MLB draft, was “different” earlier than a random server at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Southeast Florida did about 16 years in the past.
At the restaurant, a younger Bradfield, about 5 years previous, was glued to the tv display screen displaying, after all, a baseball recreation. The broadcast confirmed a clip of Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson’s iconic three-home run playoff recreation, and Bradfield, born 14 years after Jackson retired, mentioned excitedly to his father, “Look, dad, it’s Reggie Jackson.”
“The server looked at me and was like, ‘How does he know who Reggie Jackson is?’” recalled Enrique Bradfield Sr. “He had no idea how Enrique could know that. He always had that knowledge of the game, even from a young age.”
In Bradfield, who made his skilled debut Friday in rookie ball, the Orioles acquired a school star with blazing pace and excellent protection. But these closest to Bradfield — his coaches and his household — know there’s extra to his recreation than these traits.
“He just loves the game,” his dad mentioned.
‘A natural’
That love was evident even earlier than Bradfield shocked the server. When he was 4, he would imitate batting stances he noticed on TV, faux a swing, run round the home and slide right into a mini base he acquired as a giveaway at a Florida Marlins recreation.
All that follow paid off. In three years at Vanderbilt, Bradfield stole 130 bases. He stole 4 bases in a recreation a number of occasions for the Southeastern Conference powerhouse, and he even stole dwelling as soon as. His pace is maybe the principle cause he was one of many high prospects within the 2023 draft class and why the Orioles chosen him with the seventeenth total decide.
“There’s no words to describe it. Just saying we’re proud? We’re beyond proud,” Bradfield Sr. mentioned. “This has been his dream and he’s been working for this since he was a young age. We supported his dream, and now he’s getting to chase that dream.”
The chance started about 35 years in the past, when Bradfield Sr. got here to the United States from Panama at 17 years previous. After ending highschool within the Miami space, he performed heart subject at St. Thomas University in Florida, graduating in 1993.
“I give him a little hard time, saying that I was faster for him,” the elder Bradfield mentioned with amusing. “But for him, he’s a natural. I see him, his instincts, they’re natural. You can teach certain stuff, but they come automatically to him.”
When Bradfield was launched at Camden Yards in July, it wasn’t his household’s first time at Oriole Park. In 2009, his sister, Yari, had a management convention in Baltimore, and the journey was naturally parlayed with a go to to considered one of Major League Baseball’s finest ballparks.
“We’re a baseball family. That was in 2009. Who would’ve thought that all these years later we’d be here?” Bradfield Sr. mentioned.
When his son started enjoying journey ball, it was clear to Bradfield Sr. that he was proficient, though he was one of many smallest children on the workforce. But that doesn’t imply he thought his son would in the future signal a $4.16 million signing bonus after being drafted.
“I didn’t know when he was 11 years old that he’d play professionally,” Bradfield Sr. mentioned.
But another person thought he would possibly.
‘Born with talent’
About 10 years in the past, Bruce Aven was requested to assist consider 11 12 months olds throughout a journey ball tryout.
The American Heritage School coach noticed gamers lined up in heart subject and was enamored by Bradfield, the scrawniest of the bunch
“I looked at the coach and said, ‘You see that little kid out there? He ain’t big right now, but that’s probably one of your best players,’” Aven recalled. “You might simply inform he had instincts. You’ve acquired to have expertise, however Enrique was born with expertise.
“He’s a special kid.”
Just a few years later, Bradfield grew to become one of many uncommon freshmen to begin on Aven’s varsity workforce at American Heritage, a highschool program in Florida that recurrently pumps out Division I gamers. Bradfield was initially behind a number of different gamers in heart subject, together with Justin Connell, who was drafted within the eleventh spherical by the Washington Nationals within the 2017 draft. But it took Aven solely a pair weeks to acknowledge the undersized freshman was his finest wager at one of the necessary defensive positions.
“I told all the other center fielders that they need to go find another position because it would be Enrique’s,” Aven mentioned. “It was evident. Enrique makes clean routes, reads the ball quick and makes adjustments like nobody else in the outfield.”
A 12 months later, Trent Friedrich, now an space scout for the Orioles, first noticed Bradfield play, and he scouted the outfielder all through his highschool and faculty profession.
“I knew then that he was just different,” Friedrich mentioned throughout Bradfield’s introductory press convention. “He impacted the game in so many different ways, and so it’s been really fun ever since he was a sophomore in high school, following that through high school, and then coming into my area at Vanderbilt and being able to watch him the last three years. So he’s just been different every step of the way.”
A participant who was usually named as a high-end comparable for Bradfield all through the draft course of was Kenny Lofton, one of the precious outfielders of his era because of his pace and protection. Aven sees the similarities, and that’s coming from a former large leaguer who as soon as performed in the identical group as Lofton.
Aven was drafted by Cleveland in 1994 and reached the majors three years later, enjoying in components of 5 MLB seasons. He overlapped with Lofton throughout spring coaching, and Aven acknowledges related qualities in Bradfield.
“Kenny Lofton just brought energy to the team, and you could tell he loved to play,” Aven mentioned. “That’s Enrique. He has a way of impacting everyone else around him.”
‘An old soul’
Shortly after the Orioles drafted Bradfield, govt vice chairman and normal supervisor Mike Elias described the choice as a “premium college player from the most premium conference there is from the most premium program that there is.”
The head of that program mentioned Bradfield is the perfect defensive outfielder to come back by means of Vanderbilt.
“I want to be respectful of everyone,” longtime coach Tim Corbin mentioned. “But he is. He knows that. I know that.”
Like his freshman 12 months of highschool, Bradfield began from the start of his time at Vanderbilt. At 19 years previous in maybe the perfect convention in faculty baseball, Bradfield hit .336 with 47 stolen bases. In his three-year profession, the 6-foot-1, 170-pound lefty hit .311 with extra walks (131) than strikeouts (122). The success made Bradfield, who wasn’t drafted within the pandemic-shortened 2020 draft, a lock for the primary spherical within the 2023 draft.
When Bradfield first arrived at Vanderbilt, he reminded Corbin of the kind of leadoff hitter from yesteryear — speedsters who would bunt and wreak havoc on the basepaths.
“I just felt like he was an old soul from a competition standpoint,” Corbin mentioned, additionally noting how that would bode effectively for Bradfield as MLB’s rule adjustments favor quick gamers.
Elias didn’t wish to predict how shortly Bradfield, 21, might rise by means of the Orioles’ system, however given his age, expertise in faculty and “plus-plus” protection, it’s not inconceivable he joins different high picks within the group who’ve finished so.
“It’s just so hard to say what’s going to happen with people,” Elias mentioned in early July. “I definitely have no reason to believe that he won’t move quickly, but we’ll see when he gets there.”
It’s early, however his first two video games within the Florida Complex League this weekend couldn’t have gone a lot better. Hitting atop the order, Bradfield went 2-for-2 with a stroll and a stolen base in his debut Friday. On Saturday, he went 2-for-4 with a stroll.
“His biggest adjustment is going to be offensively,” Corbin mentioned about Bradfield, who hit .279 this spring and managed 15 homers in 191 faculty video games. “But the other parts of his game don’t concern me one bit. There’s not going to be a defensive player that plays to his ability. He’s just a kid that plays the center field position like few have ever played it.”
In his 21 years at Vanderbilt, Corbin helped develop scores of main leaguers. In 2023, a couple of dozen former Commodores have appeared within the large leagues, with greater than 30 within the minors.
None, the faculty coach mentioned, have the mixture of pace and protection Bradfield has. Corbin, like Aven, Friedrich, Bradfield Sr. and the Carrabba’s server, believes there’s one thing particular about Bradfield.
“He’s just different.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com