Once I was in Phoenix for the Draft Mix, I stored working into Seaver King’s pals.
“That’s my homie,” mentioned JJ Wetherholt, the West Virginia infielder and presumptive top-five decide. He and King performed collectively on Staff USA final summer time, and Wetherholt mentioned King was the particular person he’d been trying ahead to seeing most on the Mix. “He’s an amazing child. He’ll be humorous. Good dude.”
Michael Massey, the Wake Forest right-hander and someday pitch design experimentalist, lived with King final season and gave him a constructive reference as a roommate.
“He’s enjoyable. He’s a high-energy man,” Massey mentioned. “All the time needs to maintain the vibes up, maintain everybody having enjoyable.”
King says he and Wetherholt met whereas figuring out on the similar gymnasium on the Cape. “I don’t know why, I assumed I’d hate the child,” he mentioned. “After which we confirmed as much as Staff USA and we’re greatest pals.”
King mentioned that at Wake Forest, it was unofficial group coverage that the gamers shouldn’t solely see one another on the subject.
“We had a baseball home with an open-door coverage, and after a sport, there have been 10 or 12 guys there each evening,” King mentioned. “[We were] at all times competing, whether or not it was Password or Mafia or video video games, no matter.”
Listening to King and his teammates discuss life in school ball — lengthy hours collectively on the highway, on the park, and at dwelling — I bought to questioning if these guys ever get bored with one another. Faculty baseball groups spend extra time collectively than most households, and in my expertise ballplayers’ personalities replicate these you’ll discover in any group of younger males: Some are outgoing, others shy. Some are intimidatingly good, others dumber than a bag of hammers. Some are form, however others are actual jerks.
It’s nice that everybody appears to get together with King so effectively, however what occurs if you happen to’re driving the bus each weekend with folks you possibly can’t stand?
“That’s the standard query,” he mentioned. “At Wake, you get weeded out fairly fast. We’ve got a method we go about it, and if you happen to’re not purchased into it, you are feeling neglected. You are feeling unwelcome, and you are feeling such as you don’t belong. You both change for the higher, otherwise you form of get eaten alive. So that you simply have to seek out the correct folks and be okay with not being everyone’s cup of tea.”
After all, King wasn’t simply on the Mix to be a very good hold; he’s anticipated to be a mid-first-round decide in subsequent week’s draft.
One other one among King’s Staff USA teammates, East Carolina pitcher Trey Yesavage, had simply drawn rave evaluations for the final begin of his school profession, wherein he held King hitless in three at-bats. (It was additionally, by the way, the final school sport for each King and Massey as effectively.) Yesavage chuckled once I requested him how he did it.
“I couldn’t let you know what I threw him, can’t let you know how I sequenced him,” Yesavage mentioned. “However at any time when I am going up there and he’s within the field, it’s like, ‘It is a actual good hitter, I gotta make certain I execute the pitches to one of the best of my means.’ ”
King hit .308/.377/.577 in with 16 dwelling runs and 11 stolen bases final yr, his solely season of Division I baseball. See, he’d performed the earlier two seasons at Wingate College in North Carolina, a Division II college, earlier than transferring to Wake Forest.
It’s an uncommon path. I interviewed Wetherholt figuring out King was on my schedule for the next day, so I requested the WVU standout what I ought to learn about his buddy. “I might spotlight lots about him going D-II out of highschool after which making the leap,” Wetherholt mentioned. “As a result of that’s a testomony to who he’s personally. You gotta have a powerful perception system to consider, ‘Hey man, I’m going D-II out of highschool, however I’m not giving up on my desires. I’m actually attempting to make it.’ And bro went to Wake and match proper in.”
King’s circuitous route so far raises an apparent query. It’s quite common for gifted children from underscouted areas to get neglected popping out of highschool, shine at a junior school or lower-division college, and play their method onto MLB groups’ massive boards.
However King isn’t from some distant backwater within the Canadian tundra. He was born and raised in Athens, Georgia. Not solely is there an SEC college in his hometown — a college whose star slugger, Charlie Condon, would possibly go no. 1 general on this draft — however the northern half of Georgia is perhaps essentially the most closely scouted piece of actual property on the planet. How did King get missed?
“I used to be at all times tremendous undersized in highschool,” mentioned King, who even now’s an athletic however skinny 6-foot. “I didn’t actually develop till my senior yr, so on the time Wingate was my solely supply. I had a extremely good senior yr. I hit .505, led the state in RBIs — I had a good yr my senior yr — however nonetheless, no person got here attempting to pry me away or something like that.”
Division II would possibly’ve been a small pond, however King became a particularly massive fish. His sophomore season, he hit .411/.457/.699 and earned invites to the Cape Cod League and Staff USA — the latter being extremely uncommon for a participant outdoors Division I. He mentioned it was powerful at first to slot in with teammates who’d come from energy convention colleges, however his play rapidly spoke for itself. As soon as he transferred to Wake Forest, it quickly turned clear that the steadiness between scholar and athlete had shifted.
“It’s much more structured. All the things’s within the palm of your hand. You’ve bought lots of people checking on you, there’s folks offering stuff for you each day,” King mentioned of the transition to Division I. “Like at Wingate, I made my very own schedule. We have been advised we couldn’t schedule courses previous a sure date and that was form of it — you’re by yourself after that. Going to [Wake Forest], we had an instructional advisor there daily attempting to set it up, all these issues. So it was simply totally different.”
Wake Forest was the no. 1 general seed within the 2023 NCAA match, and regardless of struggling heavy losses to the draft (most notably top-10 decide Rhett Lowder), the hope was that King and fellow switch Chase Burns would do for the Demon Deacons what Tommy White and Paul Skenes had accomplished for LSU the yr earlier than.
It didn’t fairly occur. Wake began ACC play sluggish and ended up going 15-15 in-conference and 38-22 general. Preseason Friday evening starter Josh Hartle struggled, whereas Massey and first baseman Nick Kurtz have been restricted by accidents. King was one among simply three Wake Forest place gamers to start out all 60 video games.
I put it to King that certainly he would somewhat not have been in Phoenix for the Mix in any respect. The purpose in the beginning of the season was for Wake to make it again to the Faculty World Collection, and that dream burned out towards Yesavage and East Carolina within the regional spherical.
“I believe it simply didn’t line up for us. It wasn’t meant to be,” he mentioned. “To be trustworthy, I believe we did all the pieces we might to get to the postseason, to be wholesome and play our greatest baseball, and it simply ended up not taking place. So we are able to’t actually look again at it and ask what might have been.”
So as soon as once more, King is altering groups and going up a degree this summer time.
King’s Division II background makes him distinctive amongst this yr’s first-round prospects, even on this transfer-happy school setting. However the query of the place he’s going to play has by no means been settled. King break up time amongst 4 totally different defensive positions at Wake: second, third, shortstop, and heart subject.
King’s athleticism, and talent to play everywhere in the diamond, led Wake Forest hitting coach Invoice Cilento to check him to Mookie Betts in an interview with The Athletic two months in the past. The comp caught, as King can play wherever up the center, runs effectively, and hits for energy. However Betts is an inner-circle Corridor of Famer, the most effective gamers of the twenty first century, and King is a 21-year-old child 13 months out of Division II ball. That’s lots to dwell as much as.
“I believe whenever you’re requested a query and also you decide anyone out, often you’re not going to choose a man who begins each different day. You’re going to decide on an All-Star to check your star to,” King mentioned. “I don’t give it some thought an excessive amount of. I believe now we have an identical form of physique kind, defensive versatility, and form of the contact/energy/velocity mixture, however on the finish of the day I’m a unique participant myself. Clearly I wish to mannequin my sport after him, however he does issues effectively that I don’t.”
My suspicion is that the Betts comp has lots to do with the truth that King performed 10 or extra video games at three totally different positions final season, together with shortstop and heart subject. That defensive versatility is extra the results of circumstance than it is part of King’s id.
I do know I mentioned earlier that you simply shouldn’t generalize about baseball gamers’ personalities, however there may be one exception to that rule: Each newbie infielder who can run and throw even a little bit is satisfied that he can play shortstop within the execs. Each single one.
So once I requested King about his pure defensive place, he mentioned, “I believe I’m a shortstop at coronary heart.” Quelle shock.
King arrived in Winston-Salem final fall having been advised explicitly that he wasn’t going to play shortstop.
“And I used to be, like, ‘ what? I’ve proved folks improper earlier than. I’m simply gonna go take [incumbent starter] Marek [Houston]’s spot,’” King mentioned. “And I get to campus and Marek’s gonna be a primary rounder subsequent yr. I’d somewhat have him enjoying shortstop on my group than one other group, and me have to maneuver off and assist our group win.”
King ended up spelling Houston at quick a number of occasions over the course of 2024, however he break up most of his season between third base and heart subject. He makes extra sense on the latter place due to his plus velocity, however no matter group drafts him will most likely give him an opportunity to stay on the grime.
And he’s beneath no illusions about the truth that, regardless that he’s come thus far already, he’s nonetheless a great distance from being prepared for the majors. In actual fact, he’s trying ahead to having the complete, year-round consideration of an expert teaching employees.
“Hitting .300 within the ACC isn’t any joke, however I walked, what 20 occasions? And I can enhance on that,” he mentioned. “I can steal extra baggage. I can turn out to be a greater defender. There’s simply quite a lot of room for me to develop as a participant.”
Nevertheless it’s going to imply yet one more adjustment in way of life.
“Faculty baseball is its personal animal, and I don’t count on it to be the identical,” King mentioned. “I count on that to be the final time I get to see the identical 40 guys for an entire yr daily. It’s going to be a revolving door. I believe you must have a assist system outdoors of your group.”
King cites his Staff USA teammates as a part of that assist system, and draft-related capabilities, just like the Mix, have served as casual group reunions and group remedy periods. However on the similar time, this era of non-public {and professional} upheaval is one other alternative to fulfill new folks.
“Baseball has form of a singular language,” King mentioned. “I might stroll all the way down to the sphere and meet anyone new and be greatest pals. It’s simply form of bizarre that baseball is ready to try this.”
