Grant Witherspoon's Path To The Draft

Eric Hollier
TulaneGreenWave.com

Grant Witherspoon reached a crucial moment in his development as a baseball player last summer, just before his draft-eligible junior season at Tulane, when he decided to change his swing.

He was playing in the prestigious Cape Cod League at the time and took his lumps early while developing a more compact swing which he believed would benefit him in the long run.

The work eventually paid off, and he was selected in the fourth round with the 120^th overall selection in the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft last week by the Tampa Bay Rays.

"It definitely didn't come easy," Witherspoon said. "I worked on baseball harder than I ever had. I started putting in the extra work, and for about two years I did that pretty much every day."

He hit .234 with the Bourne Braves last summer while working on his swing, but Witherspoon knew he was on the right path with his development.

"I worked with some people and got some good advice," Witherspoon said. "I started doing the right stuff and I started putting it into play in the games there, which was pretty uncomfortable, but it was definitely something that needed to happen."

He put in extra work every day over the fall and winter to perfect his new swing. He hit off the pitching machine with student assistant and former Green Wave teammate Jarret DeHart improving his eye for pitches. They would turn up the machine as high as it would go, as Witherspoon strove to become more comfortable with live pitching, and he began to see the ball better, resulting in his taking more bad pitches this year.

As a junior, the Lakewood, Colorado native turned in his best collegiate season in 2018. He led Tulane in nearly every offensive category and was a First-Team All-American Athletic Conference selection. He batted .330 with 12 home runs, 19 doubles, 53 RBI, 40 walks and 13 steals – all career highs. He also collected multiple hits in 24 games and hit three grand slams – one of only three Green Wave players this century to hit three slams in a season.

Witherspoon's offseason work was a result of the desire to prepare for everything that he could encounter throughout the baseball season. Sustaining success on the baseball field is difficult enough through a 56-game schedule, but Witherspoon combined the added challenge of rigorous classroom demands as a chemical engineering major. He not only wanted to be good with Tulane this season and simply reach professional ball, he hopes to excel when he arrives.

"I knew there was going to be a lot of pressure with the draft and everything," said Witherspoon. "My mindset going in was just to work really hard so I'm prepared, so that whenever I was in doubt I could just think about how I've put a bunch of work into this. I've worked as hard as I can, so there's no reason to put the extra pressure on myself."

The week between the end of the Tulane season and the MLB Draft was a whirlwind. Witherspoon packed his things in New Orleans and proceeded to hold three workouts for teams in three different cities over a four-day span. At his workout in Miami, Marlins team president and future baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter was standing behind the batting cage watching him hit. He then worked out for the Colorado Rockies in Arizona and the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

While none of those teams drafted him, word got around about his tools and he became more attractive to teams, particularly after running a personal-best 6.4 in the 60-yard dash, showing off his speed tool. After his workout with the Dodgers, Witherspoon finally made it back home to Colorado in time to watch the draft with his family.

"My family has always been supportive," Witherspoon said. "They always wanted me to go to school. Before I had a bigger scholarship, they would've put up the money for me to go to school. When I started thinking about going pro, they were really supportive of me. Some things were hard with the process, but they were always helping me out."

Witherspoon says without hesitation that friendships forged with his Green Wave teammates is the best part of his time at Tulane.

"The guys on the team are all great guys, and just being a part of 35 guys who are all going through it every day together and just hanging out together off the field," Witherspoon said. You pretty much go through college with them, and I just love how tight everyone on our team was. That was my favorite part."

Growing from a 175-pound freshman with undeveloped tools in to a fourth-round draft pick can look back on how he reached that point with pride.

"I worked really hard for it," Witherspoon said. "I didn't just mature and get better, I worked really hard for everything."

Players Mentioned

Jarret DeHart

Grant Witherspoon

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