South Florida baseball stars cashing in following early selections in MLB Draft
Numerous baseball millionaires were created Sunday night – several of them with South Florida ties.
The 2023 Major League Baseball Draft, which began Sunday and continues through Tuesday, has a monetary “slot value” assigned to each pick over the top 10 rounds. Teams can sign players over or under slot, but they may not exceed the overall budget given to them by MLB. The more picks, and the higher in the round, the bigger the budget.
Given all of that, here’s the slot value for each of the players with South Florida ties who were selected on Sunday:
▪ FAU first baseman Nolan Schanuel, who is from Boynton Beach, was drafted 11th overall to the Angels. His slot value is $5,475,300.
▪ Value center fielder Enrique Bradfield Jr., who played at Plantation’s American Heritage, was drafted 17th by the Orioles. His slot value is $4,169,700.
▪ Gulliver Prep shortstop/third baseman George Lombard Jr. was selected 26th by the Yankees. His slot value is $3,065,000.
▪ Doral Academy shortstop Adrian Santana was selected 31st by the Rays. His slot value is $2,670,600.
▪ Third baseman Yohandy Morales, who played for Braddock High and the Miami Hurricanes, was picked 40th by the Nationals. His slot value is $2,144,700.
▪ Hurricanes closer Andrew Walters was selected 62nd by the Guardians. His slot value is $1,273,700.
On Monday, among non-Hurricanes players, the seventh round featured the Twins’ selection of right-hander Nolan Santos, whose slot value is $252,500. Santos went from Miami Beach High to Miami Dade College to Bethune-Cookman. Santos was the first player selected in this year’s drafted from an HBCU school.
Santos, 22, had a 0.49 ERA in his senior season at Miami Beach. In 16 starts this past season at Bethune-Cookman, he went 6-5 with a team-best 3.51 ERA.
Schanuel, a lefty hitter, is rare in that he had more homers this past season (19) than strikeouts (14). He’s tall at 6-4, and he has a high leg kick, and all of his tools have coincided as a late bloomer.
After all, he hit just one homer in his prep career. In January, he started wearing corrective contact lens, which has helped.
Although Schanuel played in the mid-major Conference USA, he went 12-for-21 with seven homers against Florida and Miami.
Schanuel also led the nation in batting average (.447), walks (71) and on-base percentage (.615), earning honors as a first-team All-American and the C-USA Player of the Year.
Meanwhile, Bradfield – the fastest player in the draft and a potential Gold Glover in center – said he was thrilled to join an Orioles organization that is loaded with young talent.
One of those young players is third baseman Coby Mayo, a top-10 Orioles prospect who was Baltimore’s fourth-round pick in 2020 out of Stoneman Douglas High. Bradfield and Mayo played youth-league ball together for years.
“The fact that the (Orioles) can develop guys so well excites me,” Bradfield told mlb.com.
In 191 career games at Vanderbilt, Bradfield set a school record with 130 steals, making it safely on 90.9 percent of his attempts. He also hit .311 with an .873 OPS.
The past couple of days have been magical for Bradfield, and that includes receiving a congratulatory tweet from Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr.
Bradfield also got congratulations from former Orioles center fielder Adam Jones.
Bradfield, who made just four errors in his career, has been compared to another former major-league center fielder -- Kenny Lofton, who was a six-time All-Star, led the league in steals five times and won four Gold Gloves.
“Enrique is a game-changer,” said Bruce Aven, a former MLB outfielder who coached Bradfield at American Heritage. “When he’s on base, he makes pitchers throw more fastballs because they are afraid he will steal bases. The new rules (bigger bases and limited pickoff throws) enhance his value.
“There are a lot of fast guys who can’t steal bases. Enrique is a fast guy who understands how to steal. He reads pitchers and gets great jumps.”
Lombard is a 6-3, 190-pound shortstop who could end up at third base once he adds about 20 pounds of muscle.
He has already outdone his father in one aspect as George Lombard Sr. was “just” a second-round pick, selected by the Braves in 1994.
Yankees executive Damon Oppenheimer raved about Lombard’s intangibles, according to MLB.com.
“His (character) is a separator,” Oppenheimer said. “He is focused on every pitch with unquestioned work ethic.
“He has the ability to impact the ball, using the whole field with power.”
Santana, a 5-foot-11, a 155-pound Hurricanes recruit, became a switch-hitter very recently – after his sophomore year.
ESPN raved about Santana, saying he is an “80-grade, top of the scale runner and a 70-grade, almost top of the scale defender with a 70 arm. You are starting with almost perfect grades.”
On a Zoom call, Santana called himself “the next switch-hitting Trea Turner.”
