Kentwood product Cody Bartlett realized a dream Wednesday morning.
Bartlett, a Washington State University senior and 2006 Kentwood High graduate, was selected in the 41st round — 1,249th overall — by the Toronto Blue Jays on the third and final day of Major League Baseball’s amateur draft.
“It’s one of those surreal feelings that you can’t really describe,” said Bartlett, who played both second base and shortstop for the Cougars. “It’s a childhood dream I have had in the back of my mind since I first picked up a baseball.”
This past season at Washington State, Bartlett hit .283 with 12 doubles, two triples, one home run and 25 runs batted in. Bartlett moved onto draft radars last year, when he batted a team-leading .323 with seven home runs and 34 RBIs, statistics that earned him second-team All-Pac-10 honors.
A 5-foot-8, 180-pound middle infielder, Bartlett often has been overlooked by scouts due to his stature.
“With sports these days, that’s always a factor,” he said. “Scouts were always saying, ‘If you were 6-2 or 6-3, you’d go higher.’ In my mind, that’s other people’s perspective. The height deal has always given me more fuel to the fire.
“I think it has given me a little bit of a push.”
Bartlett will now become Kentwood’s second baseball player competing professionally. Former Kentwood star Matt Hague is currently a first baseman playing for the Indianapolis Indians, a Triple-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Kentwood coach Jon Aarstad wasn’t surprised to see Bartlett selected.
“He is the closest thing to a five-tool player that I have ever had,” Aarstad said. “He has power, average, arm, and way above average speed. He’s a player. The only thing he is lacking is height. He overcomes that with a work ethic.”
That said, Bartlett was beginning to sweat as the rounds of the draft rolled by.
“I figured I’d get drafted between the 20th and 30th rounds. I was getting a little discouraged,” Bartlett admitted. “But everybody was saying, it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. I listened to the whole draft (on the Internet),”
“It is definitely a dream I wanted to have happen.”
Bartlett will head to mini-camp in Florida on Monday before finding out where he will play in the Toronto organization next. The former Kentwood star, however, will go plenty prepared. Shortly after being selected by the Blue Jays, he promptly went to the mall and purchased a Toronto hat.
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