Ernesto Lopez’s dream has always been to play professional baseball. He wasn’t willing to risk his only chance.
Rather than go to college, at top JUCO LSU-Eunice, the former Grand Street Campus standout agreed to terms with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a free-agent contract on Sunday and signed the deal Tuesday upon arriving in Arizona.
“I’m not going to take a chance not get looked at,” said Lopez, who hit .610 with six home runs, 24 runs scored and 28 RBIs during the regular season for Grand Street. “It feels amazing. It’s what I wanted. I don’t care about the money. I’m not going to touch it at all.”
Lopez, the Triple Crown winner in PSAL Class A who led Grand Street to its first city championship, will join Fordham Prep standout Andrew Velazquez on the Arizona League Diamondbacks, a rookie-level Single-A team. As part of the deal, he received an undisclosed signing bonus, money for two years of college and additional bonuses for moving up through the minor league system, area scout Todd Donovan said.
Donovan added that if the First-Year Player Draft wasn’t cut down by 10 rounds, Lopez, 17, would’ve been a player Arizona would’ve targeted. They saw him multiple times over the summer with the Long Island Tigers and felt he was a player that could add catching depth to their system and eventually move up the ranks, if he develops as expected. While Donovan said the organization likes his bat, his catching ability is what appealed to them.
“He’s somebody we think has soft hands, a feel for catching, good feet, solid transfer, a very young kid,” Donovan said. “We feel as though theirs is enough present day athleticism, there’s willingness to play the position, enough arm.”
Lopez will have to fight for playing time against highly drafted prospects, who will have to play their way out of the lineup while he will have to play his way into. But Donovan said the club sees him as a prospect, and envisions him as one of two starters on the Arizona league Diamondbacks next year. He compared him to Yankees catcher Russell Martin, an unheralded 17th-round pick out of junior college, because of his build.
“I think this is right up his ally,” Donovan said. “This is a kid who has been overlooked. He won the Triple Crown in his conference, he was the player of the year, and nobody talked about him. He’s been an underdog all his life.”
Lopez said when the contract was offered to him Sunday, a series of emotions flowed through him. He became nervous, excited and hesitant all at once. But he also knew the right move to make, especially with an ally like Velazquez he can lean on at the start.
“It’s what I wanted,” Lopez said. “That’s my dream. I can’t wait to get down there, show what I have.”