Red Wings shortstop, Seaver King, has gone from one college offer as a high schooler to one step away from Major League Baseball in just a matter of years.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — “Number five, Seaver King,” Ralph Rocky Perotta, the public address announcer of the Rochester Red Wings belted out.
It happens every day, in every game, for every player. But six years ago, hearing his named called in a Triple-A baseball game, one step away from Major League Baseball, was unfathomable.
“Absolutely not — absolutely not, one offer,” King said.
Yeah. Now a top prospect in the Washington Nationals’ organization and the 91st best prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com, Seaver King had just one offer out of Athens Christian School in Georgia.
“Here stood this kid who was probably 5’10, 5’9, and maybe 135 pounds and just thin, wiry, but still super confident in who he was,” Jeff Gregory, the head coach at Division II Wingate University told me.
The first time the two met was between King’s sophomore and junior years of high school. Seaver’s high school coach, Allen Osbourne, previously served in Gregory’s role as Wingate head coach.
“I remember calling Coach Oz afterward and going, ‘man, I believe you, but he’s small,'” Gregory said. “He said, ‘just wait, you watch.'”
Small. It’s what stuck in Jeff Gregory’s head for awhile. He and his staff obliged with Osbourne and watched anyway. Seaver was offered and he subsequently accepted, primarily for his glove.
“In the recruiting process, it was like, he’s really good defensively,” Gregory said. “Offensively, I mean I think he was facing some guys, some going to SEC schools and struggled a little bit.”
The idea that King was a defensive-first type of player made sense, maybe just for the fact that he was small and played short, but any notion that Seaver King was a liability at the plate was erased his senior year of high school.
“He kept sending videos, I’m going like, man, this is different,” Gregory said. “That’s all I said. Like in my mind, it was different.”
Still, being a contributor with Division II’s reigning national champions, let alone playing pro ball was a stretch at this point.
“Just playing for the fun of it, it was always a dream, but never thought it’d be reality,” King said when asked if he thought pro ball was a possibility when he was in high school, a prospect that changed after his first semester at Wingate.
“When he came back from Christmas, he just started hitting, he didn’t stop,” Gregory said. “As it progressed, we kind of started paying more and more attention to it. But then it kind of becoming more and more realistic.”
As the Bulldogs entered King’s freshman year, however, they were also returning maybe the greatest core that Wingate had ever seen–a crop of All-Americans and national champions. So the frosh’s playing time was spotty.
“He definitely said I put myself in a spot to play after that fall,” King said. “And I was playing twice a week, kind of still getting frustrated.”
“He was kind of working out of a rotation with four infielders that I was kind of rotating,” Gregory said. “It was still partly, he needed to earn his chance.”
Through the first two months of the season, King’s batting average hovered below .300 and he played in a little over half of Wingate’s games–not quite enough to find consistency at the dish.
“One time, I kind of blew over and lost my temper, and he saw it,” King said.
It came in a rare loss for Gregory’s Bulldogs. Neither King nor Gregory said what the incident itself actually was, but based off the team’s 2022 schedule, one can surmise it happened as #2 Wingate lost to #17 Newberry. In the three-game series, King got one at-bat and one hit.
“It was the weekend against a conference opponent and we struggled. We didn’t play real well. And I went with some older guys that had experience opposed to going with him,” Gregory said. “For him it was being 18, it was a competitive piece coming out.”
A freshman. With an outburst. About playing time.
Most coaches would get down or discipline a player for that. Coach John Gregory is not most coaches, he knew what was coming and why King hadn’t been a lineup fixture just yet.
“It was tough trying to get everybody in there and he just was a part of a group that went 48-10 that year and had a strong season and he was a big part of it,” Gregory said.
“But after that series, he didn’t come out again,” the Wingate skip reminisced smiling. “Guys still talk about it and everything.”
That’s how Seaver King became a mainstay in a nationally ranked lineup, as a freshman.
“He said you’ll get your shot and he gave me my shot,” King said.
The 18-year-old rewarded his coach with 10 hits over his next four games, including 10 RBI.
“Then I won Player of the Week and never looked back,” King said. “I mean, obviously not the best way to go about it, but, he saw how much I wanted it.”
His freshman campaign wrapped up with a .381 batting average, four home runs, 44 RBI, 12 walks, and seven stolen bases while getting caught zero times, over 35 games. The Bulldogs also won their conference tournament.
“We won the SAC tournament my freshman year, hosted a regional,” King said on his favorite memory while at Wingate.
The sequel made year one look like a blip on the radar, King led Wingate in almost every batting category. As a sophomore, his .408 batting average, .695 slugging percentage, 11 homers, 21 doubles, five triples and 53 RBI were all team highs — and he was doing so while playing a premium position at shortstop.
“There were things that he would do in practice that everybody would look and see and just go, nah, we can’t do that. You know what I mean? And it was every day,” Gregory said.
In fact, there was one series where King’s production became the ire of one teammate.
“We played a four-game series, and Sean had had a really good series,” Gregory said.
It was a four-game sweep of Nova Southeastern two weeks into the season. Barnett got on base six times and added a double for the Bulldogs. The outfielder/pitcher’s production was slightly overshadowed though.
“And I think Seaver’s last at-bat, he hit a double off the wall and it may have been 110 off the bat and you could just hear Sean like exhale behind me and he goes, all right, we get it, you’re good,” Gregory laughed.
The Wingate sophomore produced lines, on consecutive days that read as follows.
Game One: four hits, one double, one triple, one home run. Yeah, he hit for the cycle, plus he worked a walk and stole a base.Game Two: two hits, two ribbies.Game Three: three hits, three ribbies, a double and a home run.Game Four: three hits, three ribbies, and that aforementioned double off the wall.
The epitome of video games numbers. Don’t worry though, Barnett still mashed a .344 batting average that year, which was second to only–you know by now. Drafted in the 11th round in 2024, Barnett is now a pitcher in the San Diego Padres org.
KING’S ASCENT | Seaver King’s rapid flight from one college offer to MLB’s doorstopAfter two years with the Bulldogs, King earned opportunities to play in the best summer league in the country, the Cape Cod League, and represented USA baseball with 2023 collegiate national team. The new teams kept coming entering his junior year, King transferred to high-major Division I Wake Forest. A move that allowed him greater exposure and greater competition.
“Sweeping Clemson, always good. We beat North Carolina in the conference tournament,” King said. “[Athletics All-Star] Nick Kurtz hit a go-ahead homer. That was sick, that was peak baseball for me.”
King’s jump from Division II to I was successful, batting .308 with 16 homers in in 60 games. All of these opportunities–Wake Forest, Team USA, the Cape, and Wingate earned him the right to be the 10th overall pick in the 2024 MLB draft.
“I was fully expecting not to be drafted at 10 and then it happened…So I mean, I kind of blacked out so I don’t remember much,” King said.
So far, he’s made the Nationals look smart with that pick, ascending through the minors in a rapid pace–he’s been to all four levels in 213 games played. Now with the Red Wings, he’s one step away from the show.
“I haven’t really had time to think about it, it’s been Wingate to Wake to the draft, to just keep going up to every level,” King said.
Maybe getting to this point back in high school didn’t seem possible, but now he’s here. At this rate, a better question is can we even put a ceiling on what Seaver King could accomplish going forward?
“No, I don’t think you can,” Gregory said shaking his head. “Just being around him every single day and working with him the two years that he was here. I had to be careful because I feel like his aptitude was so good.
“Coach Jeff Gregory, he was the one that gave me the shot. Kind of let me do my thing,” King said. “I was different from a lot of guys where I just loved it and kind of had my way about doing things, and he kind of gave me the leeway to do that and I’m thankful for that. It made me the player I am today.”
“He came here and he just was a late bloomer,” Gregory said. “So I think what everybody’s seeing, what everybody’s getting is what he’s tapping into his ability standpoint. And then you match that with the work ethic that he’s always had, the character he’s always had, and you start putting that stuff together. I don’t ever try to predict he can do this, he can do that. I think he’s gonna be really close to trying to be the best out of everybody and I think that’s pretty cool to think that way.”
The high school senior with one offer is now one step away from Major League Baseball.
Seaver King is currently on Rochester’s 7-Day Injured List with a left oblique injury. He is expected to be return later this month.
KING’S ASCENT | Seaver King’s rapid flight from one college offer to MLB’s doorstop WHEC.com.
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