Seth Hernandez has not yet thrown a professional pitch. Yet he’s already getting pretty good at slowing the game down.
Hernandez will hear that phrase a lot over the next, say, decade or two, as he progresses from prep baseball phenomenon to first-round draft pick and, in just a few weeks, the projected future ace of a major league franchise.
But things are already coming quickly.
Thursday, Hernandez fulfilled a longtime goal when he was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year, joining a group that in the four decades of the honor has gone on to combine for four MVPs, 42 All-Star appearances and 27 first-round draft selections.
Come July 13, Hernandez will join that group.
With a 100-mph fastball and a mature three-pitch mix, Hernandez is by far the best prep pitcher in this draft and remains on the periphery of consideration for the No. 1 overall pick. With significant volatility among the projected top 10 – thanks to prep stars like Hernandez, his Corona High School teammate Billy Carlson and Oklahoma prep shortstops Ethan Holliday and Eli Willits along with a bevy of elite college arms – Hernandez could go anywhere in the first dozen names called.
He’s already going through the ringer of interviews and visits with clubs, as they probe his hobbies (golfing, though not particularly well) and off-field demeanor (chill, it seems). All while his decorated high school career came to a dramatic end and graduation looms.
“It’s a game,” Hernandez told USA TODAY Sports after All-Star and World Series champion Dexter Fowler surprised him with the Gatorade honor, “and you just got to be able to take in the special moments because not everybody’s privileged to do this stuff.
“And really just taking it day by day. The draft is something super special and it’s going be a surreal moment, but I know that it’s just going to be the starting point and something new and a new chapter in my life. “So it’s going to be exciting.”
It’s already been an exciting couple years for Hernandez.
His Corona Panthers put together an epic two-year run, beginning in 2024 when they won the National High School Invitational in Cary, North Carolina and capped a 30-3 season with a CIF-Southern Section Division I championship. Their 5-0 victory over Harvard-Westlake – the powerhouse that’s produced Lucas Giolito, Max Fried, Jack Flaherty and Pete Crow-Armstrong – made them the first team in history to claim bot the NHSI and the crown at the highest level of California baseball.
How does one top that?
Well, Hernandez could be the first of three Panthers to come off the board in round one. Shortstop Carlson is also pegged to go in the first dozen or so picks, while infielder Brady Ebel should land in the first two rounds.
The trio did all right this year, too, going 28-3 before falling in the Division I semifinals to St. John Bosco. And Hernandez certainly did his part.
He gave up just one earned run all season before Bosco’s 3-0 semifinal victory. Hernandez finished with a 105-7 strikeout-walk ratio.
“It was awesome. They’re going to be my brothers for life,” Hernandez said of his teammates. “Obviously, we didn’t take it home this year, but we did take it home last year. And the group that we had this year was super special. Once in a generation type of team. And it was great just because we gelled so well together and really just brothers – not only on the field, but off the field as well.
“With the team we had this year, it’s kind of hard to look back and say it was a failure just because our team was so special. And like I said, it was once in a generation type of thing. No hard feelings.”
Oh, and Hernandez slammed seven home runs and drove in 30, leaving a strong impression on Fowler, the 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series champ.
“I’ve watched his videos and he’s got a nice swing on him. I didn’t know!” says Fowler. “Is this the next Shohei? What are we doing?”
Quipped Hernandez: “I’m not stealing 50 bags.”
Nope, not when he’s expected to receive a bonus in the high seven figures. Hernandez, who committed to Vanderbilt, first drew the strong attention of scouts as a high school sophomore, when he hit 96 mph on the radar gun at an Area Code Games event at Dodger Stadium.
He has improved his pitchability as his frame filled out, and pushed his fastball to triple digits.
Come mid-July, that progress will pay off, and soon after, Hernandez will be a professional. Things will change, as a game becomes a business. With that, Fowler had some words of advice to keep Hernandez grounded.
“My parents always asked me, ‘When do you think you’ll be done playing?’” says Fowler, who played his last game in 2021 and retired with 1,306 hits and a .358 on-base percentage over 14 seasons. “I said, ‘When I stop having fun.’ When it becomes a job, I’m going to be done.
“So keep this same attitude, keep this same energy. It’ll take take you where you need to go.”