Everyone has their very personal Enrique Bradfield Jr. origin story — the second they realized he was “completely different” than common ballplayers.
His college coach remembers Bradfield’s tempo and competitiveness all through his first fall at Vanderbilt. An Orioles scout remembers the outfielder’s ability to differ a recreation all through his sophomore 12 months at American Heritage Faculty in Florida. His highschool coach will all the time bear in mind seeing an 11-year-old Bradfield patrolling coronary heart topic all through a journey ball tryout.
However perhaps no person knew Bradfield, the Orioles’ first-round determine inside the 2023 MLB draft, was “completely different” sooner than a random server at Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Southeast Florida did about 16 years up to now.
On the restaurant, a youthful Bradfield, about 5 years earlier, was glued to the television show display displaying, in any case, a baseball recreation. The published confirmed a clip of Corridor of Famer Reggie Jackson’s iconic three-home run playoff recreation, and Bradfield, born 14 years after Jackson retired, talked about excitedly to his father, “Look, dad, it’s Reggie Jackson.”
“The server checked out me and was like, ‘How does he know who Reggie Jackson is?’” recalled Enrique Bradfield Sr. “He had no concept how Enrique might know that. He all the time had that data of the sport, even from a younger age.”
In Bradfield, who made his expert debut Friday in rookie ball, the Orioles acquired a faculty star with blazing tempo and glorious safety. However these closest to Bradfield — his coaches and his family — know there’s additional to his recreation than these traits.
“He simply loves the sport,” his dad talked about.
‘A pure’
That love was evident even sooner than Bradfield shocked the server. When he was 4, he would imitate batting stances he observed on TV, fake a swing, run spherical the house and slide proper right into a mini base he acquired as a giveaway at a Florida Marlins recreation.
All that observe paid off. In three years at Vanderbilt, Bradfield stole 130 bases. He stole 4 bases in a recreation quite a lot of events for the Southeastern Convention powerhouse, and he even stole dwelling as quickly as. His tempo is perhaps the precept trigger he was one in every of many excessive prospects inside the 2023 draft class and why the Orioles chosen him with the seventeenth whole determine.
“There’s no phrases to explain it. Simply saying we’re proud? We’re past proud,” Bradfield Sr. talked about. “This has been his dream and he’s been working for this since he was a younger age. We supported his dream, and now he’s attending to chase that dream.”
The possibility began about 35 years up to now, when Bradfield Sr. obtained right here to the US from Panama at 17 years earlier. After ending highschool inside the Miami area, he carried out coronary heart topic at St. Thomas College in Florida, graduating in 1993.
“I give him a little bit onerous time, saying that I used to be quicker for him,” the elder Bradfield talked about with amusing. “However for him, he’s a pure. I see him, his instincts, they’re pure. You may train sure stuff, however they arrive mechanically to him.”
When Bradfield was launched at Camden Yards in July, it wasn’t his family’s first time at Oriole Park. In 2009, his sister, Yari, had a administration conference in Baltimore, and the journey was naturally parlayed with a go to to thought of one in every of Main League Baseball’s best ballparks.
“We’re a baseball household. That was in 2009. Who would’ve thought that every one these years later we’d be right here?” Bradfield Sr. talked about.
When his son began having fun with journey ball, it was clear to Bradfield Sr. that he was proficient, although he was one in every of many smallest youngsters on the workforce. However that doesn’t indicate he thought his son would sooner or later sign a $4.16 million signing bonus after being drafted.
“I didn’t know when he was 11 years outdated that he’d play professionally,” Bradfield Sr. talked about.
However one other particular person thought he may.
‘Born with expertise’
About 10 years up to now, Bruce Aven was requested to help think about 11 12 months olds all through a journey ball tryout.
The American Heritage Faculty coach observed players lined up in coronary heart topic and was enamored by Bradfield, the scrawniest of the bunch
“I regarded on the coach and stated, ‘You see that little child on the market? He ain’t large proper now, however that’s most likely one in every of your greatest gamers,’” Aven recalled. “You may merely inform he had instincts. You’ve acquired to have experience, nevertheless Enrique was born with experience.
“He’s a particular child.”
Only a few years later, Bradfield grew to turn into one in every of many unusual freshmen to start on Aven’s varsity workforce at American Heritage, a highschool program in Florida that recurrently pumps out Division I players. Bradfield was initially behind quite a lot of completely different players in coronary heart topic, along with Justin Connell, who was drafted inside the eleventh spherical by the Washington Nationals inside the 2017 draft. However it took Aven solely a pair weeks to acknowledge the undersized freshman was his best wager at one of many obligatory defensive positions.
“I instructed all the opposite heart fielders that they should go discover one other place as a result of it might be Enrique’s,” Aven talked about. “It was evident. Enrique makes clear routes, reads the ball fast and makes changes like no person else within the outfield.”
A 12 months later, Trent Friedrich, now an area scout for the Orioles, first observed Bradfield play, and he scouted the outfielder all via his highschool and school occupation.
“I knew then that he was simply completely different,” Friedrich talked about all through Bradfield’s introductory press conference. “He impacted the sport in so many various methods, and so it’s been actually enjoyable ever since he was a sophomore in highschool, following that via highschool, after which coming into my space at Vanderbilt and having the ability to watch him the final three years. So he’s simply been completely different each step of the way in which.”
A participant who was often named as a high-end comparable for Bradfield all via the draft course of was Kenny Lofton, one of many valuable outfielders of his period due to his tempo and safety. Aven sees the similarities, and that’s coming from a former giant leaguer who as quickly as carried out within the equivalent group as Lofton.
Aven was drafted by Cleveland in 1994 and reached the majors three years later, having fun with in elements of 5 MLB seasons. He overlapped with Lofton all through spring teaching, and Aven acknowledges associated qualities in Bradfield.
“Kenny Lofton simply introduced vitality to the staff, and you may inform he beloved to play,” Aven talked about. “That’s Enrique. He has a approach of impacting everybody else round him.”
‘An outdated soul’
Shortly after the Orioles drafted Bradfield, govt vice chairman and regular supervisor Mike Elias described the selection as a “premium faculty participant from probably the most premium convention there’s from probably the most premium program that there’s.”
The top of that program talked about Bradfield is the proper defensive outfielder to return again via Vanderbilt.
“I need to be respectful of everybody,” longtime coach Tim Corbin talked about. “However he’s. He is aware of that. I do know that.”
Like his freshman 12 months of highschool, Bradfield started from the beginning of his time at Vanderbilt. At 19 years earlier in perhaps the proper conference in college baseball, Bradfield hit .336 with 47 stolen bases. In his three-year occupation, the 6-foot-1, 170-pound lefty hit .311 with additional walks (131) than strikeouts (122). The success made Bradfield, who wasn’t drafted inside the pandemic-shortened 2020 draft, a lock for the first spherical inside the 2023 draft.
When Bradfield first arrived at Vanderbilt, he reminded Corbin of the type of leadoff hitter from yesteryear — speedsters who would bunt and wreak havoc on the basepaths.
“I simply felt like he was an outdated soul from a contest standpoint,” Corbin talked about, moreover noting how that might bode successfully for Bradfield as MLB’s rule changes favor fast players.
Elias didn’t want to predict how shortly Bradfield, 21, may rise via the Orioles’ system, nevertheless given his age, experience in college and “plus-plus” safety, it’s not inconceivable he joins completely different excessive picks inside the group who’ve completed so.
“It’s simply so onerous to say what’s going to occur with folks,” Elias talked about in early July. “I positively haven’t any cause to consider that he gained’t transfer shortly, however we’ll see when he will get there.”
It’s early, nevertheless his first two video video games inside the Florida Advanced League this weekend couldn’t have gone loads higher. 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 largest adjustment goes to be offensively,” Corbin talked about about Bradfield, who hit .279 this spring and managed 15 homers in 191 college video video games. “However the different components of his sport don’t concern me one bit. There’s not going to be a defensive participant that performs to his potential. He’s only a child that performs the middle area place like few have ever performed it.”
In his 21 years at Vanderbilt, Corbin helped develop scores of primary leaguers. In 2023, a few dozen former Commodores have appeared inside the giant leagues, with better than 30 inside the minors.
None, the college coach talked about, have the combination of tempo and safety Bradfield has. Corbin, like Aven, Friedrich, Bradfield Sr. and the Carrabba’s server, believes there’s one factor specific about Bradfield.
“He’s simply completely different.”
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