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High School  | General | 4/14/2020

Dynamic Bradfield in full sprint

Jeff Dahn
Photo: Enrique Bradfield Jr. (Perfect Game)

It’s impossible to even consider how the 2020 Florida high school baseball season could have gotten off to any better start than what it did for senior Enrique Bradfield Jr. and his talented teammates at Plantation American Heritage.

The Patriots jumped to a 10-0 start and had risen to No. 2 in what turned out to be the final Perfect Game High School Top 50 National Rankings before the season was brought to an abrupt halt.

Bradfield, a 6-foot, 155-pound left-handed hitting centerfielder who boasts elite speed, possesses unmatched defensive acumen and a tremendous ability to get on base and score runs, had also sprinted out of the gate, going 11-for-30 (.367) with a home run, a double, 10 RBI, nine runs scored and five stolen bases.

This was, of course, before the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world as we knew it, causing the suspension of what remained of Bradfield’s senior season. But even today, weeks later, all Bradfield can do when he thinks about the game of baseball is smile.

“It’s very important to keep baseball fun because I feel like as soon as it stops being fun that’s when you start to struggle; things start to maybe not go as well,” Bradfield told PG during a recent telephone conversation. “Going into this year being with (the Patriots) for the 10 games that we played, things didn’t always go my way, but it was the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball.”

Enrique Bradfield Jr. is a treasure. A Vanderbilt commit who carries a weighted 4.4 GPA at AHHS, he ran a 6.26-second 60 at the PG National Showcase last June and is ranked the No. 12 outfield prospect (No. 50 overall prospect) in the 2020 class.

The PG scout who wrote him up after his National performance called him a “polished player who understands his strengths and plays to them” and a “prototypical leadoff hitter.”

Those are traits Elite Squad Baseball founder/owner/manager Richie Palmer has been appreciating and admiring for more than a third of the 18-year-old Bradfield’s life. If scouts are wary of any part of Bradfield’s game it’s his power potential, but to Palmer’s way of thinking nothing could be less important.

In a separate telephone conversation with PG late last week, Palmer echoed what the PG scout had written post-National.

“One of the most impressive things to me is that Enrique knows who he is; he knows his strengths in baseball,” Palmer said. “He’s not bothered by the fact that he isn’t a home run hitter. … Enrique has never been the type of guy that says I have to prove to people that I have power.

“He plays to his game, and it’s nice to see that in this day and age in baseball where he’s kind of identified who he is and he plays it up to the best of his ability.”

Bradfield said he first came to know Palmer as an 11 year old while playing for a  program called Team MVP. The two hit it off immediately and despite going their separate ways for a couple of years, Bradfield eventually got back together with Palmer in the Elite Squad program.

“I got the chance to play in his organization under John Calabrese and it was great for all of us,” Bradfield said. “Richie has been nothing but good to me, to my family and to rest of the guys around us. He’s put us in the (position) to succeed, he’s put us out in front of all these coaches, scouts and whoever, and it’s just worked well, the partnership that we have.”

During a Perfect Game career that totaled 17 events between January 2016 and October 2019, Bradfield’s performances prompted scouts to fill their notebooks with accolades and exclamation points.

Sixteen of those events were tournaments playing with Elite Squad-affiliated teams – his only showcase experience was at last year’s PG National in Phoenix – and it seemed like he never failed to steal the show (and at least a half-dozen bases at every stop).

There were 14 appearances on PG all-tournament team rosters, and MVP performances at both the 2017 WWBA Freshman East MLK Championship and the 2018 WWBA Underclass East MLK; Bradfield was at the PG WWBA World Championship in Jupiter, Fla., the last two Octobers, earning all-tournament team recognition in 2018.

He played prominent roles on Elite Squad teams that won three WWBA championships, one BCS championship and one Youth Tournament championship from 2016-18.

“Those experiences were definitely great,” Bradfield said, “and not only because of the competition but also being around all these guys who are just as talented as you and just as hard-working; they’re from everywhere around the country.

“You start to build relationships and bonds – some of my best friends I met (while) playing in Perfect Game tournaments – and you get to meet so many new people that you’d probably never meet without playing in those events.”

Palmer doesn’t mince words when speaking of his impactful center fielder – there just isn’t any need for him to do so:

“He’s such a dynamic player. Fortunately, in our program, we’ve coached a lot of very, very good and talented players but I think Enrique is one of those talents that not only does he change your team but at any moment he can change the outcome of a game. He’s one of the most electrifying players we’ve had in our program because he can do it in so many fashions.

“With his knack for the baseball, his baseball IQ and when you pair that up with his physical ability and his speed, I don’t know if we’ve had a better defender in center field in our program’s history.”

Throughout that impressive run of PG championships, MVP awards and all-tournament team selections, Bradfield seemed to be joined at the hip with another top 2020 prospect in pitcher Timmy Manning.

Manning, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound left-hander out of Pompano Beach, Fla., and a Florida signee who will be graduating from Cardinal Gibbons High School sometime this spring, is ranked No. 87 overall nationally (No. 7 LHP) and Nos. 20/2 in Florida.

He was named the MV Pitcher at the 2018 WWBA  Underclass East MLK Championship and was a 10-time all-tournament team selection for the Elite Squad from 2016-18. Manning was also at the PG Junior National Showcase in both 2017 and 2018 and at the PG National in Phoenix last summer.

“He’s a special pitcher,” Palmer said when asked about Manning. “Obviously, he’s got great stuff – his fastball, his breaking ball, his changeup – and the pitchability is through the roof, but I think what separates him from a lot of the (pitching) prospects is how competitive he is.

“As a coach, there are certain kids that make it uncomfortable when you go to mound and you have to take the ball from them because of their competitiveness, and he’s one of them. … He’s probably one of the most intense competitors that we’ve had in our program.”

Both Bradfield and Manning played on the MLB/USA Baseball Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) circuit last summer which limited their involvement with the Elite Squad in June and July. Palmer knows them both very well despite that absence, and while Bradfield may appear to be the more laid-back of the two, he does share one important trait with Manning.

“Enrique Bradfield hates to lose, the same way that Timmy does,” he said. “Any time that they’re playing it’s not just another game to them it’s no, I want to win. Enrique was a leader and not only was he a leader in the outfield but he was a leader on our team.”

Bradfield has been mostly pleased with the way his game’s developed up to this point in his career while acknowledging that development, by its very definition, is never complete. There’s always something to improve upon and that’s what drives him – keeps him “reaching” and “striving” in his words – to continue to get better.

With the status of the 2020 MLB Amateur Draft in total limbo, including its number of rounds, it’s impossible to discuss that part of the equation in regard to players like Bradfield and Manning.

But Palmer has his own well-informed thoughts and he told PG that if the draft had taken place before this tragic global health crises ruthlessly took control of everyday life, he felt like both players would have been selected in the first two rounds.

“Based on the conversations that I’ve had with people and based on history with kids in our program, it wouldn’t have shocked me if either one of them had slid into the back end of the first round,” he said. “Honestly, I think if the (high school) season would have played out, both of them would have risen their stock.”

None of those projections matter now. In its latest online update posted on March 31, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) said it would consider resuming spring sports seasons on a date when it is deemed safe to do so, but that appears extremely unlikely at best.

So Bradfield is back into his offseason training program, lifting and running, and also doing some hitting and throwing when the opportunity presents itself. He is fortunate, he said, that he has the flexibility and the resources that he needs to get those things done on an almost daily basis.

A thoughtful young man, Bradfield knows it does him no good to sit around and brood and ponder the “what might have been” questions surrounding his final high school season. State champs? National champs? It seems certain those answers will remain unknown.

And so, he’s moving forward, trying to prepare himself the best he can for what he knows he has in front of him, and that’s his commitment to Vanderbilt. When the time arrives that it’s safe for him to step on campus, he’s going to walk into the program, get himself acclimated and jump right in.

“I feel like I’m in a great spot, honestly,” Bradfield said. “I’m signed with one of the best academic schools and right now the best baseball program that there is, so I’m excited. I’m happy with the high school career that I’ve had and I’m definitely proud of everything that I’ve accomplished in the last four years. I’m ready for a fresh start and I’m ready to start the next chapter of my life.”
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