After breakout season at Cincinnati, PT grad Natili ready for MLB draft
Jack Natili did his best to shield himself from the MLB draft prospect lists, even if he has been trending in a positive direction.
“I just let my advisor handle all of that,” Natili said. “I did my best, especially during the season, to ignore any rankings as much as I could.”
There was a time when Natili, a Peters Township graduate, might have been considered under the radar, but after a breakout season at Cincinnati where he hit 19 home runs, his talents are no longer a secret.
Most major league scouting services have Natili projected to go in the first few rounds of this year’s draft, which is this weekend.
The draft begins Saturday with the first four rounds. Rounds five through 20 are on Sunday.
“It’s a situation that I’ve been working hard for, for a lot of years and leading up to it is a special time for my family and me,” Natili said. “Obviously there’s a lot of nerves and excitement, but it’s really a cool time in my life.”
Natili is a catcher with a power bat, which is always attractive to major league scouts. He hit .339 with 15 doubles and three triples, to go along with his 19 homers, and had 65 RBI.
The good spring came after Natili was an all-star in the prestigious Cape Cod wood bat league last summer.
Each piece played a part in why he shot up most of the major scouting services’ draft boards. Baseball America had Natili ranked 58th in their final mock draft. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel has him ranked 71st. He’s 74th on MLB pipelines big board and he’s 82nd on Perfect Game’s top 100.
Natili is part of a deep college catcher draft.
Five of the top 58 in Baseball America’s mock draft are college catchers.
Georgia Tech’s Vaun Lackey is ranked third. Arkansas’ Ryder Helfrick is eighth, Georgia’s Daniel Jackson is 35th and Texas’ Carson Kinney is 40th.
Natili put an exclamation mark on his junior year by hitting three home runs in Cincinnati’s NCAA regional opener against Louisiana, a 12-2 win. It was the third three-homer game of a season that was full of positive memories with signs of growth on and off the field.
“It was a big year for me in terms of improving a lot of areas on the field, and I took that first step as a junior towards being a leader in the clubhouse and working with some of the younger guys,” Natili said. “That was the biggest difference between this year and last year. I tried to continue to get better defensively as a catcher and at the plate. It was a good year for me to grow as a leader, and I enjoyed the heck out of it with my teammates.”
Natili attended the MLB Draft Combine, which was held at Chase Field in Phoenix from June 22-26. He said he did not do a ton of work on the field, but got all his medical clearances completed and spent most of his time there meeting with front offices from MLB teams.
“It was a good interviewing process,” Natili said. I was able to talk about how I have improved as a player over the years. At the same time, I got a look at what different organizations value, how they see me as a player, and where they think I can improve if I were to be picked by them. It was a really good experience to kind of take that first step as a professional and talk to some of the decision makers.”
Aside from the combine Natili said he has done several predraft workouts, including one at PNC Park with the Pittsburgh Pirates and another at Great American Ballpark with the Cincinnati Reds.
Natili is eager for the next chapter in his life, which is professional baseball. That starts with the dream of hearing his name called this weekend.
“I can’t really say exactly where I think I’ll end up, but hopefully sometime during Day One,” Natili said. “That would be ideal. I’ve done all I can do to this point, so now I just have to let it unfold and we’ll see where we end up when we get there.”