Texas Rangers one-time catching prospect Kellin Deglan is having the time of his life in the Australian Baseball League. The 22-year old left hander is not only learning a new position, he is setting records.
Deglan was the Texas Rangers first round pick in the 2010 draft. The then 18-year old catcher out of Canada spent most of his first few seasons in the minors struggling with the bat. He began to look more comfortable in his 20s as began to split time hopping back and forth with the Low-A Hickory Crawdads and the High-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He wasn’t much of a hitter for average, but his power was coming into form. In fact in June, Deglan had a game in Hickory when he bashed a 3-run home run and a grand slam to drive in 7 of the Crawdads 11 runs that day.
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When opposing manager Tommy Thompson asked Deglan to join him for the winter Down Under in the ABL, Deglan at first didn’t give much thought to the idea. However, the prospects of improving his new found power swing in a new league quickly became enticing.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time when he asked me, but I thought about it for a few days and decided I wanted to do it,” Deglan told MiLB.com. “I told the Rangers. They were all for it, and we decided to make it happen.”
Deglan took off to Australia and joined the Melbourne Aces. The problem was that the Aces had an abundance of catching prospects already on the roster. Deglan had a choice. Move to first base or sit on the bench. With Deglan’s power, the Aces were hoping they had a new first baseman.
Deglan admittedly knew his swing took a new, promising turn in the 2014 season. He sat down with Hickory hitting coaches Bobby Rose and Travis Adair and got the mechanics of his swing right. He also knew that playing first base would take less of a toll on his knees and body after catching 100 games in 2014 already. And it has paid off. He is getting everyday at bats and Deglan is the new home run king Down Under.
The new first baseman quickly jumped out to 11 home runs in the first 32 games of the season. There were several series left on the short season and the modern day record of 15 home runs was in sight. In his next three-game series, he cranked the five home runs needed to achieve the feat.
“When I had 11 home runs coming into the series against Canberra, I was starting to notice I had a pretty good lead in the home run race,” he said. “Then I found out that the record was 15, and that’s when I really started thinking about it. I really wanted to break that record. I felt like I’ve been seeing the ball great out here.”