“We find the players,” agreed Matt Hyde, who has scouted New England for the Yankees since 2005. “That’s what we have to do.”
Even so, it’s not a common path. Since 2022, only six high school players — five pitchers, one position player — have been drafted and signed out of New England high schools. The skew toward the mound isn’t happenstance.
Both scouts and players noted it is easier for New England pitchers to assert themselves as draftable than position players given the disparities in on-field skills. Pitchers are scouted heavily based on measurable pitch data; hitting is reactive in ways that require game evaluations.
Meet Brody Bumila, the Mass. high school pitcher who throws 100 mph
“If you’re [throwing] 95 [miles per hour], then you’re 95. But as a hitter, if you hit .450, they’re like, ‘Are you hitting .450 because the competition is not good, or are you hitting .450 because you’re a good hitter?’ ” said Astros shortstop Jeremy Peña, who was drafted in the 39th round out of Classical (R.I.) High, didn’t sign, enrolled at the University of Maine, and got taken in the third round in 2018. “There’s a gray area there.”
This year has followed the pattern. Scouts have flocked to see flamethrowing 6-foot-9-inch Bishop Feehan lefthander Brody Bumila, as well as 17-year-old Vermont Academy righthander Kaiden McCarthy, who has a chance to be the highest draft pick ever out of Vermont after reclassifying as a senior to be eligible for this year’s draft. They could join a group of pro baseball players from New England who stand as testament to the ability of bundled-up scouts to find talent in all corners of the region.
“We’re kind of all in this together,” said Astros righthander Mike Burrows, taken by the Pirates out of Waterford (Conn.) High in the 11th round of the 2018 draft. “Those Northeast scouts knew where to find us.”
“It’s a little harder for guys in New England, but if you put the work in, take advantage of opportunities, you’re going to get that chance,” said Yankees starter Cam Schlittler, who went to Walpole High and then Northeastern before getting selected in the seventh round in 2022. “We can make it out of New England and still chase our dreams.”
“It’s tough. It’s cold a lot, and there’s limited outdoor time,” said Red Sox utility player Mickey Gasper, who went to Merrimack (N.H.) High and then got drafted in the 27th round in 2018 out of Bryant University in Rhode Island. “But if you find the time to put the necessary work in that it takes for baseball, which is a lot, geographically it doesn’t really matter.”
Fagnant and Hyde are among the pillars of the Northeast scouting network. They’ve worked together to ensure the top New England prospects gain exposure and experience against top competition.
With decades of experience scouting the area, their networks of high school and college coaches, former professional players, and baseball training facilities ensure that, if players have pro potential, they’ll get scouted.
“I’ve got 100,000 bird dogs that’ll give me names,” Fagnant joked of his network of contacts who alert him to talent.
In an effort to ensure players need not rely on pay-to-play showcase events such as Perfect Game, Hyde and Fagnant have organized free workouts across New England and the Northeast for nearly 20 years. They’ll select top high schoolers (mostly rising seniors) and college players for scrimmages in venues that have included Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Polar Park in Worcester, and Dunkin’ Park in Hartford, and open those workouts to scouts from any organization as well as college coaches.
“We don’t want kids to think they have to pay $800 to go to Perfect Game, a workout, or a showcase,” said Fagnant. “As scouts, I think part of our job is to be ambassadors to the game and give these kids an opportunity to be seen. The workouts that we have cost nothing.”
Also working to challenge the pay-to-play showcase circuit: technology and social media.
There are now plenty of opportunities for players to measure elements such as pitch velocity, movement, and spin rates, as well as bat speed and exit velocities. If a 16-year-old high school player posts video on social media of himself throwing with TrackMan readings of 95 m.p.h. and 18 inches of ride on his fastball, it will almost inevitably get the attention of an area scout.
“With pretty much every player, you can find some sort of video out there of what they look like doing something on a field or in a batting cage, which is remarkable,” said Hyde.
That said, high school players can pursue development opportunities that better position them to get discovered.
Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick, a multisport star at Lexington High who went undrafted out of high school, researched how to do so as a teenager. His football and hockey commitments prevented him from year-round baseball training, but he found a path to gain exposure.
“I think the biggest thing for kids, especially here, is to go to [college baseball] camps,” said Frelick, who noted that coaches from dozens of colleges who are also well networked in the scouting world are represented at each college camp.
Frelick got recruited to play ball at Boston College after taking part in a BC camp as a freshman.
It also helps to take part in clinics or train at facilities that have ties to professional baseball. Those can expose young players to both the training methods and networks that will eventually filter to the scouting community.
Though summer travel ball and showcases aren’t a prerequisite to career advancement — Frelick passed on the showcase circuit — others found such events to be helpful in clarifying whether they could compete at a level that made getting drafted realistic.
“Playing travel ball was huge,” said Burrows. “It really does help to get out of your pond and see the talent that’s out there, just to see what you’re up against around the country.”
Sometimes, that comparison leads New Englanders to college, where they can continue to develop against higher levels of competition, improving their stock, and then pursuing pro ball.
There are 21 active big leaguers who were drafted out of the six New England states. Of those, only Burrows turned pro out of high school; the other 20 were drafted out of college. For most New England prep standouts, the payoff of getting scouted in high school was a college opportunity that positioned them well in future drafts.
Nonetheless, the baseball industry is aware of the growing ranks of impactful big leaguers from New England, resulting in more attention in the region and more paths to the big leagues from it. If there’s elite talent from the Northeast, it will be discovered.
“You don’t need to go to a private school. You can stay at public school. You don’t need to go down South,” said Frelick. “That path is open for anybody from this area, and so doable. I wish I knew how doable it would be when I was in high school.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
