Skip to content

After a mysterious injury and lost season, Gators star is soaring up draft boards

Florida Gators

Note: Brady McConnell was selected with the 44th pick of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Royals on Monday.

Everything was going according to plan.

Brady McConnell had long dreamed of playing baseball for the University of Florida, and here he was, starting at shortstop for the defending national champion Gators in his first year of college.

Meanwhile, McConnell had entered that 2018 season as college baseball's highest-rated freshman position player - a five-tool shortstop with prodigious power who'd first caught the eyes of major-league scouts in high school.

He was also looking ahead. Since McConnell would be eligible for the 2019 MLB Draft, which begins Monday night, as a sophomore, he could play two years at Florida, improve his stock enough to land a significant bonus from a big-league team, and then head off to the grind of the minors.

Everything was shaping up perfectly when McConnell took the field for the Gators in his debut game on Feb. 16, 2018. For two at-bats, anyway.

––––––––––

Before McConnell arrived at Florida, he was one of the hottest names in high school baseball. Prognosticators believed he might be picked as high as the middle of the first round in the 2017 draft following a sensational junior season at Merritt Island High.

But after a so-so senior campaign, the shortstop's stock fell slightly, moving his likely selection spot down to the bottom of the first round or the top of the second.

With his commitment to Florida already in hand, McConnell set the asking price for his draft bonus at an astronomical $4 million, figuring he wouldn't get it. In turn, he slid to the 33rd round, where he was picked by the Cincinnati Reds.

No problem - he was destined to be a Gator anyway.

Florida Gators

But in the third at-bat of his Florida career, McConnell felt a pop in his left hand while swinging at a high-and-away offering. Following a sudden burst of discomfort, almost half of his hand went numb. That he hit a home run in his fourth plate appearance was almost a fluke.

McConnell initially tried to play through the pain, but after going 2-for-16 over the next week, he hit the bench. Team doctors originally thought it was a hamate bone injury - a common baseball ailment that has a recovery timeline of anywhere from three-to-eight weeks. But it wasn't, and those doctors were left perplexed after running McConnell through a battery of tests.

For McConnell, it was especially difficult. Not knowing the root of his injury - along with the dozen-plus doctor visits that followed, in two states, over four months - was the worst.

"That's when you could see his concern," McConnell's father, Steve, said. "Not only is he battling with the fact he's not playing, he's getting concerned they might not ever be able to get it fixed."

It certainly didn't help that McConnell had forgone a boatload of money to play at Florida. Had he presented a more realistic asking price in high school, he might have received close to the $3 million that Merritt Island teammate Mason Denaburg got from the Washington Nationals when they selected him with the 27th pick in 2018.

Instead, McConnell was strapped to the pine for all but nine games of his freshman season, which culminated with another trip to the College World Series for the Gators.

"I hurt myself the first game, and now I don't know if this decision was the right one," McConnell recalled of choosing college over MLB. "Some of the hardest times were just sitting there watching the games. Our team was really good, and I wanted to be a part of it. ... I almost felt like it would never get fixed. There were times I was definitely upset, but I think I did a good job of masking it."

Adding to the stress, there were whispers from Gators fans who thought McConnell was overrated, or that he wasn't really injured. It's one thing to break a tibia or tear an ACL; it’s another when even medical professionals are puzzled.

Finally, McConnell's family was pointed toward Gary Lourie, the Atlanta Braves' team physician and one of the foremost hand-injury experts in the country. They made nine trips to Atlanta to consult with Lourie, who eventually found the answer near the end of that freshman year.

"It wasn’t a baseball-related injury," Steve McConnell said. "There is a nerve right there (the ulnar), near one of the main arteries, that provides blood to the hand, and it's normal for a branch of the artery to come off the nerve. Normally, it goes over the top of the nerve, or underneath it, but Brady's was wrapped around the nerve. It's just physiology. Doc said he’s never seen it happen before."

McConnell finally had his answer. He had surgery a week later. A month after that, he had his hand back.

But it would take another six months to rediscover his game.

––––––––––

After a frustrating fall leading up to the 2019 season - which saw McConnell struggle through exhibitions and simulated games - he headed back home to Merritt Island for winter break.

The pain in his hand had subsided entirely, but McConnell wasn't right. The squandered freshman year and a suspect start to his sophomore campaign were taking their collective toll.

So, he called up his high school manager, Greg Plecki, who's now an assistant coach at Eastern Florida State College. The pair met up at the old ball field, and Plecki brought along his 7-year-old son.

"He's got a really cool relationship with my son," Plecki said of McConnell. "I think it brought him back to the idea: 'This is a game.'"

Greg Plecki

"Brady’s always been a really upbeat kid, a guy who loved going to the field every day, but talking to him this fall, I think he was beaten down a little bit," Plecki added. "He needed someone to make him realize that it's the same game he played when he was 6 years old, to bring that joy back to it."

Just as important, McConnell retooled his swing during that break with the help of Plecki, Denaburg, and other former teammates during the day, and then with his father at night.

The impact was immediate.

In the Gators' first 19 non-conference games this season, McConnell piled up 28 hits in 72 at-bats (.389 average) with 20 runs scored and 11 RBIs. The power wasn't quite there yet, but everything else was.

And despite a slow start in SEC play, he finished with a sparkling .964 OPS, 11 home runs, 26 RBIs, and 23 runs scored. For the entire regular season, he hit .341 with 15 homers and 47 RBIs. He finished inside the SEC's top 10 in batting (ninth), slugging percentage (sixth), home runs (third), and total bases (seventh).

The plan was back on track.

––––––––––

To be draft-eligible while attending a four-year college, a player must be in his third season. But Major League Baseball has a sophomore eligibility rule: Any second-year player who's already turned 21 years old, or will do so within 45 days of the draft, can be selected a year earlier than their classmates.

Based on that wrinkle, McConnell has once again shot up draft boards. He wasn't included in MLB.com's top-100 rankings in April, but he was No. 39 in the website's recent top-200 list. He's also No. 59 in Baseball America's draft rankings and is No. 78 according to FanGraphs.

Getty Images

McConnell's late-season surge could propel him even higher, according to MLB.com's Jim Callis, who wrote that the shortstop is "pushing for first-round consideration on the basis of his combination of plus raw power, speed, and arm strength." In his most recent mock draft, Callis had McConnell going 31st to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team known for developing infield talent.

If he does sneak into the first round, it'll be mighty tempting to leave the Gators. If the signing bonus is attractive enough, it'll be even more tempting.

"It would be cool to be a first-rounder, but the thing that matters more is how much (a team) offers me," McConnell said. "Saying you’re a first-rounder is cool, but it won't change your life."

Steve McConnell, a professional accountant, echoed that thought while detailing the risks to consider once his son is drafted.

"Look, a high school kid has no idea what a $100,000 is, much less a couple million," he said.

"(Brady) would've thought he was rich if I gave him 20 bucks every day. But when you work through the numbers - in baseball, you get paid with your signing bonus, and at the minor-league level, they make $1,100 a month for five months a year, and it may take four or five years to find out if he’ll make it. Even a top-15 pick in the draft, only 50 percent make it to the majors for one year or more.

"There is a really good chance that it’s the only real money he'll ever get."

No matter what happens at the draft this week, and in the future, the fact that Brady is even having these conversations - after being considered damaged goods, with his hand wrapped in a cast for months, and his mind clouded by the unknown - is enough to impress his father.

"I don’t know that we ever really lost him," Steve McConnell said of the tough times.

"I never saw him down in the dumps. I saw him be a little frustrated, maybe a little scared. But he took care of what he could control. He earned academic honor roll as a freshman. ... I don’t think he understands what it means to me. The fact he took care of the little things that I know might not be his top priority when life went sideways for him, that’s when I knew he'd be OK. Not just with baseball, in life. When things aren't going your way and you still do the little things right, that's what shows your character.

"I'm more proud of how he handled those adversities than I could be anything he'll do on the baseball field."

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox