Coronavirus has left Fresno State’s draft-eligible baseball stars in state of limbo

At the start of the college baseball season, Zach Presno was an intriguing piece to the puzzle for Fresno State and coach Mike Batesole.

The junior catcher from Buchanan High had hit 10 home runs a year earlier, tied for third in the Mountain West Conference, and with 77 career games and 360 at-bats he was one of a few Bulldogs expected to provide more consistent production at the plate. Presno, Nate Thimjon, Emilio Nogales, Matt Ottino, Ryan Higgins; all of them.

The Major League Baseball Draft also was out there, though it was no guarantee.

Then, Presno started the season very fast. In just 58 at-bats, not enough to crack the top 25 in the Mountain West Conference, he was leading the league with eight home runs and an .804 slugging percentage, was second with 45 total bases, tied for third with 16 runs scored and 16 RBI, seventh with a .441 on-base percentage and 13th in batting average at .321.

“He was putting himself in position,” Batesole said.

MLB draft questions

But then the Bulldogs and everyone else were shut down by the coronavirus not even one-third into the season, and Presno and several of his teammates are in a wait-and-see mode along with every other draft-eligible junior while MLB figures out what to do with its season and draft.

“They haven’t said what they’re going to do yet, nothing is set in stone, so I haven’t put much thought into it,” Presno said.

“As of now, they don’t even know when the date is. I’m waiting for more information to come out about it. It could be five (rounds), it could move back to 10. A lot of guys want it to be 10. Then, they don’t know if they’re going to move the draft back to July …”

One of the few things set with the draft is that it will be fewer than the 40 rounds it has been since 2012.

“Everything is up in the air right now,” said right-hander Oscar Carvajal, who elected to return to school last year after he was selected in the 32nd round by the Houston Astros.

“It’s kind of hard. We’re kind of in a tough spot, us juniors. It is what it is. You just hope for the best … ”

The bonus pools for players selected in the draft remains, but undrafted free agents who sign with an MLB organization can receive a signing bonus of $20,000, a key consideration if the draft is limited to five rounds.

Each slot in the first 10 rounds of the draft has a set value – in 2019, a sixth- round pick received between $237,000 and $301,600.

“We have a handful of guys – Oscar and (Jamison) Hill, Thimjon – that very likely would have gone between the sixth and 30th round and a lot of those guys nowadays get paid,” Batesole said.

If a player is selected in the draft this summer, there also is a question where and when they might be able to start their careers with major and minor league seasons on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presno’s fast start

Until more is known, Presno and Carvajal said they are not worrying about it or working through all of the what-ifs with the draft or a return to Fresno State for a second chance at a season.

Presno was on pace to become only the seventh player in school history to hit 20 or more home runs in a season.

The top three home run hitters in Fresno State history, with HR/at-bat:

• Lance Shebelut (1988), 32 HR/279 AB, 8.7
• Tom Mendonca (2009), 27 HR/233 AB, 8.6
• Jordan Ribera (2010), 27 HR/251 AB, 9.3

Presno had hit a home run ever 7.0 at-bats at the start of the 2020 season.

“He was getting there offensively,” Batesole said. “We still have a lot of work to do. The power numbers were becoming more consistent. We played a good schedule at the beginning, too, and the weather wasn’t great. The chances of hitting somewhere close to 20 was pretty good.

“But there’s a lot more to it. If you’re going in the first five rounds, there’s a lot more to it than hitting the ball over the fence. You have to be able to play defense. You have to be able to run. You have to be smart. There’s a lot more to it than having just one of the five tools.”

Returning to Fresno State always is an option, to get in a full season and make another run at a title. The Bulldogs won the Mountain West regular season and tournament championships in 2019, the first team in the conference to win both titles since TCU in 2010, and advanced to the NCAA Tournament Stanford Regional.

“That’s what you go to college baseball for – it’s always to win championships,” Presno said. “That’s something we were lucky to do last year, but we all want to take it farther. We all have that fire and although the draft is a good option, a lot of guys still want to come back and get that much farther, to win a regional and see how far we can go.

“We all know we’re capable of it. It’s definitely a good option to come back.”