Once I was in Phoenix for the Draft Mix, I stored operating into Seaver King’s mates.
“That’s my homie,” stated JJ Wetherholt, the West Virginia infielder and presumptive top-five choose. He and King performed collectively on Crew USA final summer time, and Wetherholt stated King was the particular person he’d been wanting ahead to seeing most on the Mix. “He’s an important 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 optimistic reference as a roommate.
“He’s enjoyable. He’s a high-energy man,” Massey stated. “At all times needs to maintain the vibes up, hold everybody having enjoyable.”
King says he and Wetherholt met whereas understanding on the identical fitness center on the Cape. “I don’t know why, I believed I’d hate the child,” he stated. “After which we confirmed as much as Crew USA and we’re greatest mates.”
King stated that at Wake Forest, it was unofficial workforce coverage that the gamers shouldn’t solely see one another on the area.
“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 stated. “[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 street, on the park, and at residence — I obtained to questioning if these guys ever get bored with one another. School baseball groups spend extra time collectively than most households, and in my expertise ballplayers’ personalities mirror 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 type, however others are actual jerks.
It’s nice that everybody appears to get together with King so nicely, however what occurs should you’re using the bus each weekend with individuals you may’t stand?
“That’s the same old query,” he stated. “At Wake, you get weeded out fairly fast. We now have a means we go about it, and should you’re not purchased into it, you’re feeling overlooked. You are feeling unwelcome, and you’re feeling such as you don’t belong. You both change for the higher, otherwise you type of get eaten alive. So that you simply have to seek out the correct individuals and be okay with not being everyone’s cup of tea.”
After all, King wasn’t simply on the Mix to be hold; he’s anticipated to be a mid-first-round choose in subsequent week’s draft.
One other one in every of King’s Crew USA teammates, East Carolina pitcher Trey Yesavage, had simply drawn rave evaluations for the final begin of his school profession, through which he held King hitless in three at-bats. (It was additionally, by the way, the final school sport for each King and Massey as nicely.) 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 stated. “However each time I am going up there and he’s within the field, it’s like, ‘It is a actual good hitter, I gotta ensure I execute the pitches to the most effective of my potential.’ ”
King hit .308/.377/.577 in with 16 residence 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’d spotlight lots about him going D-II out of highschool after which making the leap,” Wetherholt stated. “As a result of that’s a testomony to who he’s personally. You gotta have a robust perception system to imagine, ‘Hey man, I’m going D-II out of highschool, however I’m not giving up on my goals. I’m actually attempting to make it.’ And bro went to Wake and match proper in.”
King’s circuitous route up to now raises an apparent query. It’s quite common for gifted youngsters from underscouted areas to get neglected popping out of highschool, shine at a junior school or lower-division college, and play their means onto MLB groups’ huge 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, may go no. 1 total on this draft — however the northern half of Georgia may be 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,” stated King, who even now could be 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 very 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 may’ve been a small pond, however King become an especially huge fish. His sophomore season, he hit .411/.457/.699 and earned invites to the Cape Cod League and Crew USA — the latter being extremely uncommon for a participant exterior Division I. He stated it was powerful at first to slot in with teammates who’d come from energy convention faculties, however his play shortly spoke for itself. As soon as he transferred to Wake Forest, it quickly turned clear that the stability between scholar and athlete had shifted.
“It’s much more structured. Every part’s within the palm of your hand. You’ve obtained lots of people checking on you, there’s individuals offering stuff for you each day,” King stated of the transition to Division I. “Like at Wingate, I made my very own schedule. We had been advised we couldn’t schedule courses previous a sure date and that was type of it — you’re by yourself after that. Going to [Wake Forest], we had an instructional advisor there every single day attempting to set it up, all these issues. So it was simply completely different.”
Wake Forest was the no. 1 total seed within the 2023 NCAA event, and regardless of struggling heavy losses to the draft (most notably top-10 choose 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 achieved for LSU the yr earlier than.
It didn’t fairly occur. Wake began ACC play gradual and ended up going 15-15 in-conference and 38-22 total. Preseason Friday evening starter Josh Hartle struggled, whereas Massey and first baseman Nick Kurtz had been restricted by accidents. King was one in every of simply three Wake Forest place gamers to begin all 60 video games.
I put it to King that certainly he would relatively not have been in Phoenix for the Mix in any respect. The objective initially of the season was for Wake to make it again to the School World Sequence, and that dream burned out in opposition to Yesavage and East Carolina within the regional spherical.
“I feel it simply didn’t line up for us. It wasn’t meant to be,” he stated. “To be trustworthy, I feel we did all the things we might to get to the postseason, to be wholesome and play our greatest baseball, and it simply ended up not occurring. 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 completely different defensive positions at Wake: second, third, shortstop, and heart area.
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 nicely, and hits for energy. However Betts is an inner-circle Corridor of Famer, among the finest 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 stay as much as.
“I feel whenever you’re requested a query and also you choose anyone out, normally you’re not going to select a man who begins each different day. You’re going to decide on an All-Star to check your star to,” King stated. “I don’t give it some thought an excessive amount of. I feel we’ve got an identical type of physique sort, defensive versatility, and type of the contact/energy/velocity mixture, however on the finish of the day I’m a distinct participant myself. Clearly I need to mannequin my sport after him, however he does issues nicely 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 completely different positions final season, together with shortstop and heart area. That defensive versatility is extra the results of circumstance than it is part of King’s id.
I do know I stated earlier that you simply shouldn’t generalize about baseball gamers’ personalities, however there’s one exception to that rule: Each beginner infielder who can run and throw even slightly is satisfied that he can play shortstop within the execs. Each single one.
So once I requested King about his pure defensive place, he stated, “I feel 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 individuals flawed earlier than. I’m simply gonna go take [incumbent starter] Marek [Houston]’s spot,’” King stated. “And I get to campus and Marek’s gonna be a primary rounder subsequent yr. I’d relatively have him enjoying shortstop on my workforce than one other workforce, and me have to maneuver off and assist our workforce win.”
King ended up spelling Houston at brief a number of occasions over the course of 2024, however he break up most of his season between third base and heart area. He makes extra sense on the latter place due to his plus velocity, however no matter workforce drafts him will most likely give him an opportunity to stay on the grime.
And he’s beneath no illusions about the truth that, though he’s come thus far already, he’s nonetheless a great distance from being prepared for the majors. In reality, he’s wanting 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 stated. “I can steal extra luggage. I can develop into a greater defender. There’s simply numerous room for me to develop as a participant.”
But it surely’s going to imply yet one more adjustment in life-style.
“School baseball is its personal animal, and I don’t count on it to be the identical,” King stated. “I count on that to be the final time I get to see the identical 40 guys for a complete yr every single day. It’s going to be a revolving door. I feel you must have a assist system exterior of your group.”
King cites his Crew USA teammates as a part of that assist system, and draft-related capabilities, just like the Mix, have served as casual workforce reunions and group remedy periods. However on the identical time, this era of private {and professional} upheaval is one other alternative to satisfy new individuals.
“Baseball has type of a singular language,” King stated. “I might stroll right down to the sphere and meet anyone new and be greatest mates. It’s simply type of bizarre that baseball is ready to try this.”
