The Detroit Tigers all-star outfielder, Baltimore Orioles starting first baseman, and Boston Red Sox starting second baseman from last season were getting in some batting practice before the upcoming Major League Baseball season.
This was not a multimillion-dollar spring training facility or even a scheduled private workout. It was the baseball field at Hagerty High School.
But seeing Riley Greene, Ryan Mountcastle and Vaughn Grissom work out at their former high school is not only a baseball fanatic’s wildest dream–it is pretty much the norm for an offseason afternoon at Hagerty High School.
Hagerty baseball has had an unbelievable history in producing major league players, with five current big leaguers: Greene, Mountcastle, Grissom and Orioles starting pitcher Zach Eflin who graduated from Hagerty, plus Angels outfielder Taylor Ward who played his freshman year there. Considering that Hagerty has only been open since 2005, the number of players who have come through the program and moved on to collegiate, minor league and major league baseball is unheard of.
An impressive statline
According to thebaseballcube.com, Hagerty has had 11 players drafted, and 13 players who are currently active across all levels of baseball. Four of these players: Eflin, Mountcastle, Ward and Greene were drafted in the first round of the MLB draft.
Starting from Hagerty’s first drafted player, Tyler Marlette in 2011, the school has continued to send players to college, minor league and professional baseball, and there is no sign of it stopping. In 2023, pitcher Garret Baumann was drafted in the fourth round of the MLB draft and is currently the 18th-ranked prospect in the Atlanta Braves organization. The current team had seven players sign on NCAA signing day this past November.
“You could say it’s just luck and a bunch of guys coming to one school, but when you set a precedent from the beginning, guys want to come here,” Greene said. “They know that all the coaches and coaching staff, Jered Goodwin and Mike Sindone now, we’re all trusting that they can get us to where we want to be.”
Beyond making it to the major leagues, Eflin, Mountcastle, Ward, Greene and Grissom have all established themselves as everyday major league players. Eflin came in 6th in the 2023 Cy Young Award voting, which is given to the best pitcher in each league every year. Mountcastle has found himself as the Orioles starting first baseman in the middle of a pennant race for the American League. Ward is a starting outfielder for the Angels and was ranked 9th on MLB’s top 10 left fielder list. Greene made his first career All-Star selection in 2024, was ranked fifth on the MLB’s top 10 left fielder list and led his team to an American League Division Series appearance. And Grissom was playing second base for the Boston Red Sox during the 2024 season.
About one in 200 high school baseball players will eventually be drafted by an MLB team, and that is just to make it into the farm system. For a school to have one player make it to the major leagues is noteworthy—five is unheard of.
In the MLB, after six years of service, players earn free agency. After Eflin’s sixth year with the Philadelphia Phillies, he signed the largest contract given by the Tampa Bay Rays via free agency in franchise history, $40 million for three years. After pitching the 2023 season with the Rays, he was traded to the Orioles mid-way through 2024 where he became teammates, again, with Mountcastle. Once reunited, the Orioles would make the postseason where Eflin started game two of the wildcard series against the Kansas City Royals. Two teammates who played high school baseball, playing together again in the MLB playoffs.
One of the guys
The professionals who come back to Hagerty in the offseason have succeeded at the highest levels under the brightest lights and have made millions of dollars, so the expectation would be that they are unapproachable, or that they would avoid practicing with high school players. This could not be further from the truth.
“When our kids come out there and see them hitting, at first it’s like, ‘Oh my gosh this is really happening,’ and then they kind of see that they’re out here every day. It’s more than just, ‘Oh, I saw this guy hit today’ because sometimes they get to play catch with that guy,” head coach Mike Sindone said. “Both of our catchers have played catch with and caught bullpens for pro guys. Obviously Riley and Vaughn come in and they’re willing to go through drills with guys. Ryan Mountcastle is taking ground balls with our first and third basemen, so it’s pretty cool.”
Since it is not uncommon to see the alumni taking batting practice or pitching a bullpen on Hagerty’s field, this gives the current players an opportunity to talk with and even get advice from current MLB players.
“Every single one of them is willing to pull kids aside and help. They’re out there to get their work in but they always want to teach, so they are always willing to stay after and help. I think it’s their way of giving back because they remember what it was like being in high school,” Sindone said.
Hagerty’s starting catcher, senior Carlos Morales, has had the chance to catch many of Eflin’s bullpens in the offseason. Not only does Morales get to pick a pro player’s brain, but he gets firsthand experience on how to train, handle the offseason and much more.
“Knowing I have support around me from actual MLB players is honestly amazing and a great resource,” Morales said. “When the words ‘good job’ or ‘you look great behind the plate’ or ‘stick to it’ come out of their mouths it means a great deal. Hearing that from a pro player as a player in high school is one in a million.”
The former players remember what coming through the program was like, and they enjoy giving back just as players and coaches gave back to them in high school.
“[The] team bonding and really hard-working people that came through here that really cared about the program set the tone for us younger guys coming through,” Grissom said.
The former players have had a tremendous impact on how the current players go about things—they’ve been role models for them. They set the examples for how certain hitting scenarios go, different drills to try, and all the behind the scenes work that gets put into being a professional athlete, so current players work harder when they see what professional athletes do.
“Kids ask to take more ground balls, take more fly balls, guys stay and do extra training like go and lift, the extra swings in the cage. I think all of our alumni, even those who aren’t going on to play pro or college ball all tend to have that similar work ethic. The pro players themselves just tend to take it to that next level where they’re essentially hitting maybe six or seven days a week in addition to everything we do at practice,” Sindone said.
A tradition of excellence
Many people pose the question of how a relatively young, 20-year-old high school has produced five successful major league baseball players and consistently maintained a successful program year after year.
In 2012, Hagerty’s baseball team first made the state playoffs. Many of the former players attest the first wave of success to former head coach Jered Goodwin, as he created the expectation of the way things were done throughout the program.
“Jered Goodwin was a big part of creating an atmosphere and tradition that would drive not only each other but also the group of players coming in. There was an expectation of things that had to get done and the way things were done that were passed down year to year,” Grissom said.
Goodwin helped to set up the program for success, coaching from 2011-2018. In that time, he led the team to six playoff runs and an appearance in the state championship.
“[They were] the best years of my life. These kids are extraordinary, so I am incredibly proud of them,” Goodwin said.
The success didn’t stop with Goodwin, however. Sindone has been coaching since the 2020 season and has been to the playoffs four consecutive years since 2021.
“Mike, going off of what Jered did has helped all of these kids develop into really good people and players. All the coaches and players before gave us a belief that being a major leaguer and getting drafted was really possible,” Mountcastle said.
Sindone has instilled the same sense of urgency to win and the pride to be the best team possible regardless of the circumstances. And this has always been the belief, despite different coaches and different players coming through the program every few years.
“You’re handed a torch essentially and expected to carry it, so the pride that we have in the honor that it is to put on the uniform is a big deal,” Sindone said. “It doesn’t necessarily matter if it’s a big draft year for us or if it’s just a bunch of guys who are talented and work really well together. I do believe that every single year we’re going to be good because we’ve instilled that work ethic, and our players have a real sense of pride about putting on the uniform.”
