DENNIS SILVA II | STAFF WRITER
Late Friday night, John Henry Gonzalez, who graduated from Edinburg High last weekend, received a call from the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays had Gonzalez, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, pegged to be selected in rounds 11-15 of Major League Baseball’s draft. Tampa Bay called to see if Gonzalez was “all in” on playing professional baseball even with a full-ride scholarship to play at Texas Tech.
“We had been discussing it all night,” said Gonzalez’s father, John. “It was going to depend on when he was going to get picked. The top 10 rounds was our goal. If it didn’t happen by then, we were just going to wait. It was an honor to get that phone call when they expressed their interest, but he’s going to Texas Tech.”
The decision was John Henry’s to make, and he assured his family Saturday morning that he would not return the Rays’ phone call to express his interest in playing pro ball.
“He feels he still has a lot more to improve and get better,” John said. “He knows he can mature. He’s only 18 years old. He’s getting a full ride at Texas Tech and he’ll have another shot to get drafted higher. It’s a win-win situation.”
With this decision, Gonzalez is not eligible to re-enter the draft until after his junior season at Texas Tech.
Gonzalez will take the rest of the month off and is scheduled to be in Lubbock at Texas Tech the first week of July.
GUTIERREZ DRAFTED
Former Sharyland High standout and Texas Tech senior Eric Gutierrez was drafted Saturday with the 593rd pick in the 20th round of the Major League Baseball draft.
Gutierrez, who contributed a clutch two-run single in Game 2 of the Red Raiders’ Super Regional 3-1 win over East Carolina on Saturday, is the Big 12 Player of the Year.
Gutierrez, a Mission native, was a first-team all-state standout for the Rattlers his senior year, when he hit .591 with 13 doubles, six triples, eight home runs, 50 RBIs and 10 stolen bases.
Barton Bickerton, Gutierrez’s high school coach and an associate scout with the San Diego Padres, believed his former player would be taken low because he had no leverage as a senior.
“All the scouts talk about are the kids with leverage,” Bickerton said Saturday morning before Gutierrez was drafted. “They will probably take him low, which would be unbelievable. The kid has gone through a lot and has really proved people wrong at every level.”
VAQUERO SIGNEE DRAFTED
While no UTRGV player was taken in Major League Baseball’s 40-round draft, Laredo Alexander senior Alec Benavides, a UTRGV signee, was.
Benavides, a left-handed pitcher, was selected with the 1,098th overall pick in the 37th round by the Cincinnati Reds. Benavides’ father, Freddie, is the first base coach for the Reds. But Benavides said via text message that he will continue his career at UTRGV despite “the honor of being drafted.”
“Alec’s in the 84-to-86 (mile per hour) range right now in a workout setting,” UTRGV recruiting coordinator Jordon Banfield said. “I think he has a chance to be a really high-end guy at some point. He’s from a really good program at Laredo Alexander and the sky’s really the limit for him when he starts to develop physically.”
BROWNSVILLE VETS’ VILLARREAL DRAFTED
Brownsville Veterans Memorial senior right-handed pitcher Freddy Villarreal was selected Saturday by the Tampa Bay Rays with the 660th pick overall in the 22nd round of the Major League Baseball draft.
The 5-foot-11 Villarreal had signed to continue his career at the University of Houston, but told The Monitor on Saturday night that he will sign to play professional baseball.
“I’m just going to continue to work hard and not be satisfied with anything,” Villarreal said.
Villarreal went 11-1 with a 0.50 ERA in 13 appearances for the Chargers last season. He had four no-hitters and one perfect game, striking out 124 batters in 69.1 innings.