High draft pick? Check.
Tickets to the ESPY Awards in New York? Check.
A record-breaking $9,747,500 bonus for a high school player? Check.
But all of that was just the preliminaries for Grady Emerson. The No. 2 overall pick in the draft for the Rays is eager to begin the grind of professional baseball, even if it is in the lowest rungs of the minor leagues at the team’s Florida Complex League team in Port Charlotte.
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“Oh my gosh, I’ve been dying to get there,” Emerson said Saturday at Tropicana Field. “I haven’t played since May, and I’m like, man, I’ve been itching. I’ve been telling my agent, ‘Dude, get me out there, get me out there, let’s go.’ But they’re doing a good job keeping me slow, making sure I’m taking the right steps and not trying to rush into things.
“But, yeah, I’ve been itching to get out there.”
Emerson visited with team officials and players at the Trop before Saturday’s game against Cleveland and brought his 12-year-old brother Maddox, along with his parents.
“My little brother is out there watching BP and he’s like, ‘I think that’s Craig (Kimbrel) out there.’ And, ‘Oh my God, that’s Junior (Caminero).’ It’s cool to see him get really excited about this and his love for the game grow,” Emerson said. “I’m very happy they get to enjoy this moment with me.”
While the Rays are being careful not to overdo expectations for their highest draft pick in 18 years, Emerson is not shy at all about his goals. In the hours after the July 11 draft, the prep shortstop from Fort Worth (Texas) Christian High School said he wanted to reach the majors within two years,
Sitting in the Rays dugout, he wasn’t backing off that expectation.
“I think that’s what you should do if you’re a high-level player and you want a lot out of yourself,” he said. “I think the expectations are there. Now, obviously, sometimes things don’t work out the way you wanted. But at the end of the day, it’s setting those expectations high, chasing them day in and day out, making sure you’re doing everything you can. If they don’t show up, then they don’t show up. But at least you know you gave it everything you had.”
Emerson had a .532 batting average with seven home runs, 31 stolen bases and an eye-popping 1.013 slugging percentage as a senior. He was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award given to the nation’s top amateur player, an honor almost exclusively reserved for college players in the past.
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Rays manager Kevin Cash spent some time talking to Emerson and his brother on the field Saturday.
“Can’t imagine the whirlwind he’s gone through (with) his family over the last months to a year now,” Cash said. “He’s put his name on the list. Excited for us, excited for him. All the (scouts) that worked so hard for us to get a guy that we really think is going to be a good player.”
The whirlwind continued just a little longer on Saturday afternoon.
While Grady was being interviewed, Caminero came over and spent some time with Maddox, who was wearing a Caminero jersey. After taking some pictures with Maddox and signing his shirt, Caminero took some cuts in the cage and then came back to meet Grady.
Just for comparison sake, Caminero was 20 when he made his big-league debut in 2023.
He’s already a two-time All-Star.
“It’s just working every single day, making sure that even on the ups and downs I stay level-headed,” Emerson said. “At the end of the day, it’s just having fun. Baseball is a kid’s game, and I’m very blessed to play that at a high level now. So it’s just being able to trust the process, know that there’s going to be failures, and rely on the people around me to help get me there.”
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