When you envision draft day, you picture being surrounded in a room full of your closest friends and family waiting anxiously to hear your name selected by the MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and then getting a phone call from the team right before the commissioner takes the podium and then you hear “With the 25th pick of the 2017 Major League Baseball draft…”
For left-handed pitcher R.C. Orlan, there was none of the that.
Yesterday his name was called in the first round of the Rule 5 draft. He was selected 25th overall in the Triple-A portion by the Cleveland Indians, who had the opportunity to select him when the Washington Nationals left him unprotected.
In fact, not only was he not patiently waiting for his name to be called, but he didn’t even know until he check his phone to see a flurry of texts and calls.
“I was finishing up class for the fall and I had an economics exam from 8am-11am when the draft was going on,” said the LHP from University of North Carolina. “I wasn’t focused on it, I was busy. I was so locked in to finishing my last class and I figured at some point I would check later in the day.
All of a sudden I get out of there and check my phone and I’ve got 15 text messages from all my friends and a call from my old trainer so it was a great experience,” he added.
Orlan was originally drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 44th round of the 2009 draft out of Deep Run HS in Virginia.
He opted to attend the University of North Carolina where he dominated. Due to his success, the hard-throwing southpaw was chosen to pitch in the Cape Cod League as a freshman and a sophomore with the Bourne Braves.
In his junior season, he led the ACC in appearances with 38. He compiled a record of 8-1 with a 2.21 ERA over 57 innings with 66 strikeouts. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals in the 30th round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
Over the course of his four-year professional career, he has pitched to an ERA of 3.81 over 281.0 IP. This season, he was named to Team Israel for the World Baseball Classic.
Moving around has been routine for Orlan since his childhood. He was born in Bryn Mawr, PA which is right outside of Philadelphia.
When asked how he fell in love with the game of baseball, he broke it down very detailed.
“I went to the park with my dad when I was younger and I never put it down since,” he said.
He moved to Texas, then Florida before settling in Richmond, VA for 10 years and played for a powerhouse organization in the Richmond Braves. On his team alone, four of the players went onto play pro ball.
Orlan is a great example of a baseball player that has had to grind every step of the way. Now 27-years-old and still working hard to get the call to the big leagues, he’s now been drafted three times and is on his second organization.
He stated that he has a goal for 2018 and that is to improve his splits against right-handed batters.
“I think righties hit around .280 against me last year and that needs to come down. Lefties were under .200.”
Orlan was making an appearance at the Forge 5 clinic at All-Pro Sports Academy. Check out Forge 5 at their webpage by clicking here.
