Draft Day Reunion
Two journeys come together in the home clubhouse
This weekend’s series between the White Sox and Angels won’t have any bearing on the playoff race. None of the games will be studied, discussed, and analyzed on the MLB Network in the dead of winter, even with baseball junkies at their most desperate.
But when Andrew Chafin entered the game for the Angels in the top of the seventh on Friday, he provided a moment that needs to be memorialized.
In 2011, the Diamondbacks selected Chafin, a left-handed pitcher out of Kent State University, with the 43rd overall pick. It was a supplemental pick, compensation for Arizona losing Adam LaRoche in free agency the previous offseason — a compensatory measure via Elias Sports Bureau rankings that no longer exists in the draft. The first-year scouting director in Arizona was Ray Montgomery.
The D-backs held two of the first seven selections in that draft, currency that demanded the attention of the organization’s top decision makers, including GM Kevin Towers and VP of Scouting and Player Development Jerry Dipoto.
When a team is drafting that high, the pick usually belongs to the organization; it transcends the scouting department.
It’s not until the next round that a scouting director truly owns the draft — tracking the list of best-available players remaining, listening to the voices in the room, silently recalling conversations he’s had over the past few months, and trusting the wisdom gathered along the way.
When Montgomery considered these factors and more, the 43rd pick of the draft landed on Chafin.
For the past five seasons, Montgomery has served as bench coach for the Angels, working under managers Joe Maddon, Phil Nevin, and Ron Washington. On June 20, health concerns forced Washington to step away. Montgomery was installed as the interim manager for the remainder of the season.
Last week, the Nationals sent Chafin to Anaheim in a trade. Wearing number 39 for the Halos, the pitcher is now a reliable arm in his skipper’s bullpen.
His manager drafted him 14 years ago.
As far as we know here at WTP and as far as Montgomery himself knows, this is the first time that a former scouting director has ever managed a player he drafted in MLB. When will it ever happen again?
Meanwhile, Chafin joins his sixth team in the last three seasons and the eighth team in his career. I first saw Chafin in 2013 when he was a starter in Double-A Mobile. With me during that five-day stay in the Southern League was Bob Gebhard, longtime baseball executive and special assistant in the Diamondbacks organization for a number of years. Nobody loved Chafin as much as Geb. On more than one occasion, I heard about the Mid-Atlantic Conference-opener that Geb scouted — the game-time temperature got colder with every telling of the story — when Chafin went the distance and struck out 15 batters.
Such affection did not get in the way of the old-school scout creating boundaries for the young lefty. The year prior in Visalia, Gebhard sat Chafin down on a chair in the clubhouse and gave the player a haircut. Literally. Most likely because “it was too damn long.” With more than 10 years of Major League Service to his credit now, Chafin answers to no one regarding his locks.
On August 13, 2014, Chafin made his Major League debut in Game 2 of a doubleheader against Cleveland. I can’t remember all the details of the scheduled game the night before, but I do remember that my father and I sat through a prolonged rain delay. The game was delayed shortly after it started. Josh Collmenter took the ball for the D-backs that night. Essentially, Collmenter started a game that never officially happened and was unable to pitch the next day when it was rescheduled.
Cleveland’s starter in Game 1 of the next day’s doubleheader was, as the baseball gods would have it, Trevor Bauer, who had been drafted by the D-backs with the third overall pick in the 2011 Draft.1
Game 2 belonged to Chafin, the pitcher who parked his fishing boat in the gravel lot behind the outfield wall in Mobile.
The plan all along was to send him back to the minors regardless of performance. Chafin threw five shutout frames in a game that remained scoreless long after the starting pitchers had departed. The D-backs salvaged a split, winning, 1-0, in 12 innings. The game took four hours and 16 minutes. (That sounds unfathomable these days.)
I can’t imagine that Chafin expected his reward for a scoreless debut to be a one-way ticket to Reno. Welcome to The Show, kid.
Nevertheless, that was the news he received after the game. Chafin left the manager’s office in a bit of a daze, lacking his usual swagger and the joy of having accomplished a lifelong dream. I met him by his locker a few minutes later. He needed to hear that the rainout and ensuing doubleheader had placed a strain on our pitching staff. We needed fresh arms.
I hadn’t delivered a pep talk to a player since coaching kids at Harlem RBI a decade earlier. In many ways, this was no different: “You pitched your ass off today… you picked up the team in a big way… keep your chin up, you’ll be back before too long.” Sure, the 13-year-old kids in NYC didn’t fall victim to roster management demands, but home plate was still 60 feet, six inches away.
Chafin returned to the big leagues the following month.
More than 600 Major League appearances later, the scouting director and the amateur player are reunited.2
Gerrit Cole was the first overall pick in that year’s draft. Danny Hultzen was second. It’s a great illustration of the fickle nature of the draft and the challenge that scouts and executives face annually. Other big names from that draft include Francisco Lindor, Anthony Rendon, Javy Baez, George Springer, Sonny Gray, and Blake Snell.
Chafin’s longevity is a great credit to area scout Nate Birtwell, who’s still boxing ’em in for the D-backs. Birtwell identified the pitcher, brought in other scouts to see him, and ultimately helped drive him up the big board.
Love this inside look, Ryan. Chafin’s a character. When he signed with the Nats a couple months ago, he expressed surprise that no one had wanted him earlier in the season, and he also indicated he had no idea what the Nats’ place in the standings was. Upon getting traded last year to Texas, he said something like “At least it’s not California.” Wonder what he’s thinking now.