Imagine Cole Leonida’s dilemma: the Georgia Tech catcher was picked by the Washington Nationals in the sixth round of the MLB draft Tuesday. It’s an organization “that’s definitely going in the right direction,” he said; an organization with a lot of buzz around it following the debut of phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg Tuesday night.
It’s also an organization that, a day earlier, had drafted Bryce Harper No. 1 overall. He’s a player who has been called a once-in-a-generation talent, and he happens to have grown up as a catcher.
Fortunately for Leonida, the Nats plan on moving Harper to the outfield in order to speed up his arrival to the big leagues.
“That’s real good news for me,” said Leonida, who graduated from Grandview in 2007.
Leonida, a junior, hit .296 this season with 11 home runs and 56 RBIs for the Yellow Jackets. He also nabbed 13 would-be base stealers.
“(The Nationals) have had, obviously, a good draft the last two years and they’ve got a lot of young talent,” he said. “It’s also an organization where I could possibly move quickly because they don’t have a franchise catcher like (Jason) Varitek sitting in Boston for all those years.
“I’m ecstatic.”
Georgia Tech was eliminated from NCAA regional play on Monday. That same night, Leonida’s teammate and roommate, right-handed pitcher Deck McGuire, became the 11th-overall pick of the Blue Jays.
“It’s been just a roller coaster,” he said. “(Monday) night … it was a really tough way to go out, losing two in a row to get knocked out, but at the same time, it was almost bittersweet. My roommate is Deck McGuire, so I was really excited for him.”
Leonida had been told he would fall somewhere in the third- to fifth-round range. As other catchers started to come off the board, and his name still hadn’t been called, Leonida left to play golf.
“I just had to get out of the house,” he said. “I couldn’t stare at (the draft) anymore.”
He wound up being the first pick in the sixth round.
Leonida still has a year of eligibility left at Georgia Tech but said he was leaning toward signing.
“At this point, I’m excited to get started in the Nationals organization,” he said. “I just want to get playing as soon as I can.”
Ryan Casey: 303-954-1983 or rcasey@denverpost.com
