Carlos Correa, Kiké Hernández and the scout who discovered them

By Hiram Alberto Torraca

Scouts are happy if one of their prospects makes it big time, let alone makes it to the big leagues. Multiply it by two, and it’s like winning the lottery.

Would you believe then that the same scout in Puerto Rico signed the Dodgers’ Enrique “Kiké” Hernández and pushed the Astros to make Carlos Correa the No. 1 pick in the 2012 June Amateur Draft?

“They are my two big leaguers,” Joey Solá said. “I love these boys as if they were my own kids. To see them face off in the (2017) World Series is every scout’s dream. It’s been a privilege, and I’m fully enjoying it.”

Baseball lifer

Solá, 44, is a baseball lifer. He played Little League against Red Sox manager Álex Cora and briefly played college ball at St. Vincent College in Pennsylvania.

When he returned to Puerto Rico, Solá got involved in youth baseball and became a bird scout for the Montreal Expos. He moved on to the Astros in 2004 at the recommendation of the Cuban-born Jorge Posada Sr., another longtime scout and the father of the Yankees’ former All-Star catcher.

Correa, 24, and Hernández, 27, being on rival teams during the 2017 World Series made it compelling and difficult for Solá. At the root of this story is irony. The Astros drafted Hernández in the sixth round of the 2009 amateur draft, developed him and played him for a month in 2014 before trading him to the Marlins.

The Marlins shipped Hernández to the Dodgers at the end of that season, and he has become a super utility capable of playing seven positions.

Correa, a product of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy, had a much different path. The Astros made the 6-foot-4, athletic shortstop the first Puerto Rican player drafted No. 1 overall in 2012.

Correa has surpassed expectations. He was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2015. He hit 20 or more home runs in each of his first three seasons. The 2017 All-Star was an important member of the first Astros team to win a World Series.

The fear of screwing up

Scouting is a multi-layered, multi-person process. It starts with someone like Solá on the ground and extends up the ladder to the Astros’ nerve center in Houston. They’ll send more experienced scouts and then the regional cross-checkers, who are senior scouts in charge of verifying the reports of lower-level scouts in their specific regions. When the Astros had the first choice in 2012, they feared screwing up this pick.

Baltimore Orioles general manager Mike Elias, who was the Astros’ amateur scouting director at the time, kept pestering Solá with questions about Correa.

“I would say, ‘He can hit, run, throw, field, but you see all that. What I can tell you is that I’ve never seen a ballplayer like him in Puerto Rico. Does that help you?’ And Mike said, ‘That helps me a lot,’” Solá recalled. “Mike was the one who pushed to make Correa the first pick.

“There were other names on the table and much debate. They didn’t make a decision until the last moment. On draft day, that last hour was pretty hard. They were tough moments, intense moments.”

The Astros debated between Correa and other talented prospects, namely outfielder Byron Buxton and pitchers Kevin Gausman and Mark Appel.

In the back of almost everyone’s mind was the fact that 20 years earlier the Astros had the first pick in the draft and overlooked Derek Jeter to select Phil Nevin No. 1. Jeter went sixth to the Yankees, and the rest is history.

The arguments against Correa, especially when compared to college players, were that he was 17, still in high school and looked too tall to play shortstop.

“Carlos had all the ingredients necessary to be No. 1,” Solá recalled. “But at this level, a lot of people have a say in the final decision.”

At the last minute, the Astros decided against repeating their Jeter error and went with Correa.

“Carlos was a special player. He broke all the molds,” Solá said.

Don’t pass on a hitter

Even though Hernández wasn’t wearing an Astros uniform, Solá celebrated Hernández’s spectacular and historic performance in Game 5 of the 2017 National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

In the game that clinched the pennant and sent the Dodgers to their first World Series since 1988, Hernández ingrained himself in playoff lore when he became the first Puerto Rican player to hit three home runs in a postseason game, driving in seven runs and blasting a grand slam.

What everyone saw on television was the pent-up emotion of a young player who in the past year had seen his father battle cancer, lost a grandparent and witnessed Hurricane María devastate his home island. After each dinger, Hernández danced and cavorted around the bases.

“When you know a player’s story — and see that great game that he had for his family — you feel enormous happiness,” Solá said. “After the game, I wrote him and let him know how proud I was of him and thanked him for not letting me look bad. You want to puff your chest when one of your boys does something like that.”

Unlike Correa, Hernández was never a natural athlete. He stood 5-foot-6 in high school until growing five inches his senior year. But his swing impressed Solá

“Kiké was not the kind of prospect teams wanted,” Solá said. “But a few months before the draft I told David Post, then one of the Astros’ cross-checkers, that Kiké had the best swing of the draft class in Puerto Rico that year. Every so often I would watch him hit four or five doubles in a doubleheader. I told David, ‘That kid hasn’t impressed many people, but he can sure hit.’”

Hernández proved Solá right, hitting at each level in the minor leagues.

Hernández is effusive and kinetic. That’s probably why he has dealt so well with all the personal burdens.

Both Correa and Hernández have taken advantage of the platform that baseball offers them to raise funds and send supplies back to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, which hit the island just before the two players faced off in the 2017 World Series.

“That speaks well of them and their families,” Solá said. “Thanks to them, a lot of people have received some relief amid a very difficult situation. I’m sure once the World Series is over, they will come back home and keep on helping. Their family and friends knew what kind of persons they were. And now, so does the rest of the country.”.

Featured Image: Scott Halleran / Getty Images Sport