Top Braves prospect Vaughn Grissom’s love for baseball drove his meteoric rise

“I saw Dana’s eyes open up,” Bunnell recalled. “I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, I can’t believe he just ran back and got the ball.’ I’d never seen anybody do that before unless it was playing a pickup game.”

Bunnell grew up in New York City with memories of chasing a ball you hit off the building and trying to catch it during friendly pickup games with friends. But this wasn’t a group of kids playing at a local park.

No, this was a big series that featured multiple high schoolers with big-league dreams. And in front of everyone, Grissom did something that told Bunnell and Brown a lot about the prep infielder they were interested in potentially selecting in that year’s MLB draft.

“He’s just a high-energy kid that loves the game, and he’s always having fun,” Bunnell told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by phone. “Whenever you see him, he’s got a smile on his face. Kind of like the attitude you saw when he was running to the foul ball.”

Fast forward three years, and Grissom already is in the big leagues with the Braves, who needed him this week when Orlando Arcia went on the injured list with a strained left hamstring. Two weeks ago (let alone two months ago), you couldn’t have predicted Grissom would be in the majors. But the Braves felt Grissom was talented enough to contribute.

And in one call, the Braves made his childhood dreams come true.

“As a kid, I never thought this was possible,” Grissom said Wednesday before his MLB debut. “Even up until sophomore year, there’s no question – I thought this was impossible, that’s it. Just seeing it kind of happen and seeing where the work paid off. Now realizing, getting to watch myself from the second point of view, I’m like, ‘Dude, you were always there. You were always right there.’”

‘Do you remember the shortstop on that team?’

Almost any scout headed to Paul J. Hagerty High School in Oviedo, Fla., did not make the trip to see Grissom. They went for Riley Greene, an outfielder who eventually became the fifth overall pick in the 2019 draft.

So the Braves once sent Greg Walker, who used to help them scout draft-eligible hitters, to see Greene. The Braves knew Greene wouldn’t fall to them in the draft, but the organization had to do its due diligence. About a week after Walker returned from the trip, he got a call.

“Hey, do you remember the shortstop on that team?” a colleague said.

“Yeah, I remember the body, I remember the player, but y’all didn’t send me there to scout him,” Walker responded. “I remember him.”

“Well, go back and see him again,” the colleague said. “He’s blowing up.”

The other Braves scouts who watched Grissom had similar stories of first seeing Greene. Brown had scouted Greene multiple times, which is how he saw Grissom. “Hey, this Grissom kid’s pretty good,” Brown thought.

And Bunnell had written a report on Grissom. He, too, went to see Greene before laying eyes on Grissom, just like pretty much every scout before him.

“I saw this lean, loose athletic-bodied kid with this high energy on the field,” Bunnell said. “I was like, ‘Man, this guy is catching my eye here, I don’t even know who this guy is.’”

Everyone soon learned much more about Grissom, and the Braves would eventually draft him in the 11th round in 2019.

‘This kid loves baseball’

After his co-worker called, Walker went back to Florida – this time to scout Grissom specifically. He liked Grissom and told the Braves as much. But he had no idea who Grissom truly was until the infielder showed up to the team’s complex in North Port, Fla., after the draft.

“And the first day I was around him, I said, ‘Lord have mercy, this kid loves baseball more than anybody I’ve ever been around,’” Walker said. “And I’ve been around a bunch of them. The kid actually really, really loves the game of baseball and is so appreciative of his opportunity. He really is. And it stood out the first time I ever had a conversation with him. He’s just one of these kids that’s driven, and he loves the game, he appreciates his opportunity.”

During his debut versus the Red Sox, Grissom flashed a huge smile as he went through his pregame routine. And after the game began, he bounced around at second base. You can tell he lives and breathes baseball, and always has.

“Ballpark rat is a good way to put it,” Bunnell said. “He was always there. I knew if I got there early, he was going to be there. They were always in the cages, him and Riley (Greene) together. Definitely one of those kids that was always at the field, always high energy, always a smile on his face. He just loved being out there on the field. Just the energy he brought every day attracted me to him. It was really special.”

Multiple times Wednesday, Braves manager Brian Snitker commented on Grissom’s energy. The skipper remarked about how it seems Grissom’s love for the game is genuine.

This always has been apparent to those in the Braves’ organization who first saw him years ago.

“Anybody could’ve read it,” said Walker, now a roving minor-league hitting instructor. “I just happened to be there with him talking about it. You could just see the joy. He’s got a real joy about being at the baseball field, and it was obvious to anybody. Anybody could’ve seen it. It didn’t take a veteran baseball guy to figure that out. He just loves the game. He went from a guy that never dreamed that he would have an opportunity to having an opportunity, and he’s just been on a mission ever since.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

What to expect on the baseball field

Brown, the Braves’ vice president of scouting, viewed Grissom as better than an 11th-round talent. But the Braves didn’t take him until then because they weren’t sure if he would sign out of high school.

Grissom and Greene always took batting practice together in high school, so the Braves saw Grissom hit with one of the top draft prospects in the country. “Sometimes he would hit balls just as far, just not as frequent – and so we saw that there was power,” Brown said. Grissom displayed that power when he blasted a 412-foot home run that flew over the Green Monster and landed on the street in his MLB debut.

Walker described Grissom as someone who is a hitter – not a slugger – who will keep growing into more power. A couple of years ago, Grissom asked Mike Brumley, then the Braves’ minor-league hitting coordinator, when he would hit for more power. Brumley told Grissom it would happen in 2022, a prediction that has proved true. But Walker loves how Grissom is a hitter before a slugger.

“In this game today, that we’re all looking for slug, it’s rare that you get this hit ability guy that’s got potential to slug as well,” Walker said. “And when you see them, they stand out. It’s kind of a rarity now. They used to say, ‘Well, power will come later.’ Well, this is a perfect baseball story. He’s always been able to hit, he’s always hit, and now he’s learning to hit and slug. He’s not sacrificing slug for hit ability.”

Brown said the Braves believe Grissom has a chance to be an above-average defender. They always felt his future may not be at shortstop because he’s so big – he’s listed at 6-foot-3 – but he had good hands and an above-average arm. He didn’t have great range when they scouted him, which is another reason they knew he may have to move off shortstop. But working with infield guru Ron Washington could help Grissom.

Around the time Ozzie Albies suffered a fractured foot in June, Walker talked to Snitker about Grissom. Walker knew it was a far-fetched idea to believe Grissom could debut. But then Arcia suffered an injury, once again creating a need at second base.

The circumstances led to Wednesday, when Grissom looked out at Fenway Park as he ran onto a big-league field for the first time.

“That was crazy,” Grissom said. “I just took a second to myself to just really look at everything and process what was going on, and just do my best to just take a picture in my head. But you really don’t know until you actually do it. You can try to prepare yourself and all that, but it’s nothing like how you think it’s going to be.”

‘I’m ready to go’

In the weeks leading to the draft, Grissom had been telling the Braves: “Hey, I can go to college, I could raise my stock in college.” This was true, as high schoolers who are drafted are not forced to sign to play professionally.

But on a phone call, Brown told Grissom: “Hey, you may raise your stock in college, but if you’re a good player and you sign out of high school, you got a chance of getting to the big leagues a lot sooner.” Brown emphasized to Grissom that he had talent.

Brown showed Grissom the Braves had a lot of interest in drafting him. So Grissom talked it over with his parents and his adviser.

And when Brown talked to Grissom the night before the Braves selected Grissom, the kid said: “Hey, I’m ready to go. If you take me, I’m going to sign.”

He signed, then sprinted through the minor leagues at an unreal pace. He made his debut a little over three years after the Braves drafted him.

As Grissom recalled the moments after receiving the big call and his first day at the ballpark, something became clear: This meant the world to him. He was happy to be here, grateful to debut and join a select group of baseball players who can say they have played in the major leagues.

“Just the way it happened, it was perfect,” Grissom said. “You couldn’t script it any better.”