Milwaukee Brewers' Sal Frelick is finally giving baseball his all
By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer
DENVER — "Whatever season it is."
For nearly his entire life, that’s what Sal Frelick would tell people when they asked him his favorite sport to play. First, it was tee-ball. Then, like many kids growing up in New England, he was put on skates by the time he was 5 and was playing hockey soon after. Football was next — first flag at age 9, then Pop Warner, then high school. Frelick excelled at all three sports.
On Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers made Frelick the 15th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. Yet as talented as he has always been, the notion that his name could be called in the first round of the MLB Draft seemed pretty far-fetched as recently as 2018.
Listed at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, Frelick might not look like your prototypical multisport star. But in the Massachusetts high school ranks, he was exactly that, captaining the football, hockey and baseball teams for the Lexington Minutemen just outside of Boston. He was most decorated on the gridiron, where he was the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state of Massachusetts as a senior. He accounted for more than 3,700 yards and 51 touchdowns (31 passing, 20 rushing), prompting an opposing coach to call him a "once-in-a-generation" player.
One might assume that football would be the best option after a season such as that, but Frelick had already committed to Boston College — his dream school since he was a little kid — for baseball. He considered offers from other schools to play football but ultimately remained steadfast in his commitment to BC and giving baseball a full go, despite his having no real sense of just how good he could be.
Although he dominated his regional competition, a pro career on the diamond was hardly obvious to Frelick in high school, considering he had barely heard from any scouts. After graduating from Lexington, Frelick got a roster spot on the North Shore Navigators in the Futures League, a wood bat league featuring primarily collegiate underclassmen looking to face high-level competition in the summer.
A select few rising freshmen (including his future teammate and roommate at BC, Cody Morissette, who is also a highly-touted prospect for this year’s draft) were scattered across the league, but Frelick knew that a league such as this wasn’t exactly meant for him. "I went there thinking it’ll be a good opportunity to learn from the college kids, maybe play a little bit," Frelick told FOX Sports. "I was playing well and thought, ‘Wow, I can play with these guys.’"
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So much for learning and maybe getting a few at-bats. As one of the league’s youngest players, Frelick hit .361 in 35 games with a league-leading seven HRs and 1.032 OPS. Suddenly, he knew he could hang, and off to Chestnut Hill he went.
Despite missing all of his first fall at BC after meniscus surgery, Frelick got off to a scorching start in nonconference play during his freshman season, hitting .416 in his first 11 games. There was a wake-up call in his first ACC game, however. His name was Reid Detmers, and he would go on to be selected 10th overall by the Angels in the 2020 Draft and pitch in Sunday’s All-Star Futures Game.
"It was absurd," Frelick recalled. "I thought every ACC pitcher was gonna be like that, so I left that game 0-4 thinking I was screwed for the rest of my career."
Fortunately, Detmers was likely Frelick’s best test that season. Frelick went on to hit .364 with 18 steals and was named a Freshman All-American by D1Baseball.com at the end of the season.
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With COVID cutting his sophomore year short (BC played only 15 games in 2020 before the shutdown), Frelick suddenly found himself entering his draft year with legitimate first-round hopes and a relatively small track record.
He’ll be the first to tell you that he wishes BC had more team success in 2021, as the Eagles struggled immensely after a 9-2 start to the season, ultimately finishing last in the ACC. But there was one moment from the season that no one on the Eagles will likely ever forget, and Frelick was at the center of it.
On March 7 at Auburn, the Eagles delivered one of the most outrageous comebacks imaginable. Down 9-1, Frelick led off the ninth inning with a single before two of the next three batters were retired. Then with two outs, the Eagles went single, single, HBP, walk, double. That brought Frelick back up to the plate representing the tying run:
"I kept trying to tell myself, ‘Do not try to hit a home run. Just keep passing the bat.’ But I got into a changeup that was left a little up," Frelick said. "The crowd was stunned."
Boston College went on to win the game in the 10th on a go-ahead homer by Luke Gold. Comeback complete.
Frelick’s epic blast against Auburn might have been the signature moment, but he feels good about what he was able to accomplish individually during his junior season. It showed him what was possible when he focused fully on one sport. In high school, he would play baseball from March into the summer — until football practice started — and he relied heavily on his natural physical ability to do most of the work.
"I just tried to be the most athletic guy on the field and compete,’" he said. "When I got to college, it was time to digest and learn the game of baseball, especially moving to a new position and learning what pitchers are gonna throw in the box because my athleticism is only gonna take me so far in competition."
This sharper focus has contributed to significant strides in two aspects of Frelick’s game: his defense and his power. After playing primarily infield in high school and right field as a freshman in college, it was crucial for him to show scouts that he could handle center field at the next level for him to be considered an early first-round selection. "By the midpoint of the season, I was really comfortable out there," he said.
Comfortable might be an understatement. Frelick won a Gold Glove in his first full season in center field.
Offensively, Frelick knows he’s probably never going to be a cleanup hitter. But he has adjusted his approach to allow for much more extra-base potential.
"It’s not like I’m gonna go out and hit 30-plus bombs. But when I was a freshman, I was sticking so much to my game of, ‘Don’t strike out. Put the ball in play' … I was just slapping the ball the other way," he explained. "When I talk about power, it’s not just home runs. It’s doubles … and I wasn’t hitting a lot of those because I was keeping the ball on the ground. I wanted to formulate that approach into this year, and I saw a lot more balls into the gaps rather than squeaking through holes."
Frelick will soon begin his pro career, perhaps with High-A Wisconsin or Double-A Biloxi, depending on how aggressive the team wants to be. His competitive drive has him eager and intensely curious about what the jump from college to pro ball will be like, just as he wondered when he arrived on the BC campus back in 2018.
Having grown up a Red Sox fan, he loves watching Mookie Betts — but also admires the swing of the guy Betts was traded for, Alex Verdugo. Like any young hitter, he’d love the chance to step in against the likes of Jacob deGrom or see Chris Sale’s slider from the left-handed batter’s box. And he’s sure to have another Detmers-esque moment in the minors, one that will only motivate him more.
Frelick’s drive to succeed on whatever field (or ice) necessary was honed growing up with two similarly athletic and competitive siblings. His older brother, Nico, played baseball in high school and was the bullpen catcher at Northeastern, and his younger sister, Francesca, also played multiple sports growing up. She was especially gifted on the ice, where Sal readily admits she "bullied" him and Nico regularly.
"She was a very confident skater," he said. "She was a defenseman, and we were forwards. We’d go out and try to dangle her up, and she would just lay the body, and … She was definitely the best hockey player in the family."
Now she’s on the softball team at Duke, which has given Sal a newfound appreciation for the sport.
"I used to say if I got in the box against a softball pitcher, I’d hit a home run," he said. "I’ve completely forgone that statement because I’ve seen it firsthand to know that is just not true."
Frelick of course misses certain aspects of his football and hockey past, such as the speed of the game and the full-contact mentality. He still loves watching playoff hockey and college football. As for his own craft, it’s clear that he made the right choice.
It took some time, but baseball finally has his full attention.
Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.
