Arizona baseball: Nick Quintana ready to take over the Wildcats’ hot corner

A Red Sox draft pick replacing a Red Sox draft pick

Heading into the 2016 MLB Draft, the Arizona Wildcats had a couple of guys committed that seemed poised to be selected in the first ten rounds, likely keeping them away from Tucson.

But as the second day came to an end, Nick Quintana still hadn’t heard his name called, basically cementing his path through college.

"It really surprised me," Arizona assistant coach Sergio Brown told me the following week of Quintana falling to the 11th round. "I think we’re going to land a great baseball player. I think we’re going to land a guy who’s polished that has a premium bat and that has a chance to be a pretty good Wildcat."

The Boston Red Sox, who had already selected Arizona third baseman Bobby Dalbec, picked Quintana in the 11th round on day three of the draft.

“No, not at all,” Quintana said if he was disappointed to not be picked in the first ten rounds. “Going into the summer, my decision was coming here. I just didn’t want to have any regrets of knowing ‘What if that, what if this?’.”

In the week after the draft and before Arizona left Tucson for Omaha, head coach Jay Johnson had told me that he was going to visit Quintana immediately after Arizona’s postseason run was done, and that’s exactly what happened.

“It was very cool,” Quintana said of Arizona’s head man coming out to see him. “Right after the Championship Game, like two days later, he’s in Healdsburg, California watching my game, and it was just cool to see that two days after.”

“Nothing really about baseball,” continued Quintana on what the two talked about. “It was just kinda regular conversation. He’s a very laid back kind of dude, a great coach, and is easy to talk to, so we didn’t talk about business or anything. He wanted to come see me, and I’m glad he came.”

Now that Quintana is actually in Tucson and participating in practices, it’s starting to look like Arizona is going to have a Red Sox draft pick at third base again, although Johnson has said that every infielder is playing everywhere right now.

“Definitely third base,” Quintana said of where he feels most comfortable. “Third base is where I kind of feel more at home. Shortstop, yeah, but third base is a lot easier. I’m a lot better when it’s just quick reactions and quick angles and running around.”

“I like third base.”

Quintana played shortstop in high school, but grew up on third base.

“My first position when I was younger was third base,” he explained. “Then I went to a different team and they put me at short, and it just kind of went from there through high school and into the whole showcase circuit, but if there’s a spot open, I’ll play.”

“Nick is off to a great start here,” Jay Johnson said about his potentially star freshman. “He’s a very good offensive player, has some power and some very solid hitting skills. Defensively he’s even more advanced than I thought. He does a great job of getting down to the ground for routine plays, and has tremendous arm strength. A lot of pro people had interest in him as a catcher because of that arm strength.”

So what does Nick think is the best part of his game?

“Just work ethic,” he explained. “Just grinding it out through the fall and then coming up through November and working hard with the team. Just being with the team and doing whatever it takes to make the team better. The main focus for me is my work ethic. That’s really what’s gotten me this far.”

And the thing he’s working on the most?

“Just consistency,” Quintana continued. “Consistency with the bat, the glove, the arm; just being able to be clutch with the bat and make the routine plays.”

It’s still early, but here’s a guy that Arizona fans may be seeing patrol the hot corner at Hi Corbett for the next three years.

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