Joey Solá: the scout behind Carlos Correa and Kiké Hernández
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,” said Joey Solá with pride in an interview in Spanish with La Vida Baseball in October.
Solá spent the past week in Houston watching Games 3, 4 and 5 at Minute Maid Park before returning home to his daytime job as dean of education at the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School in Gurabo, southeast of San Juan.
Tonight, he’ll watch Game 6 from the island with the same torn loyalties that he felt while in Houston this past week. Nonetheless, he can’t hide the fact that he’s bursting with pride and joy.
“I love these boys as if they were my own kids,” Solá said. “To see them face off in the World Series is every scout’s dream. It’s been a privilege and I’m fully enjoying it.”
Baseball lifer
Solá, 43, is a baseball lifer. He played Little League against Álex Cora, the Boston Red Sox’s new manager. 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.
That Correa, 23, and Hernández, 26, are on rival teams makes it both 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 then shipped Hernández to the Dodgers at the end of that season, where he’s become a super utility capable of playing seven positions.
A path so different from that of Correa’s, a product of the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy. Six-foot-4, tall and athletic for a shortstop, the Astros made him in 2012 the first Puerto Rican player drafted No. 1 overall.
And since then, Correa has surpassed expectations: Rookie of the Year in 2015. Twenty or more home runs in each of his first three seasons. A 2017 All-Star, hitting .315/.391/.550 with 24 home runs and 84 RBI despite missing 53 games to a thumb injury.
The fear of screwing up
Scouting is a multi-layered, multi-person process. It starts with someone like Solá on the ground and extends all the way up the ladder to the Astros’ nerve center in Houston. They’ll send older scouts. Cross-checkers. Front office folks. When the Astros had the first choice in 2012, they feared screwing up this pick.
Mike Elias, the Astros’ assistant general manager for player acquisition, 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 than 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,” Solá said.
The Astros debated between Correa and other talented prospects, namely outfielder Byron Buxton, today a star centerfielder with the Minnesota Twins, and pitchers Kevin Gausman, in his fifth year as a starter for Baltimore Orioles, and Mark Appel, who was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates and is now in the Philadelphia Phillies organization waiting for his first chance in the bigs.
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 Kiké wasn’t wearing an Astros uniform, Solá celebrated Hernández’s spectacular and historic performance in Game 5 of the NLCS 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 TV 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, Kiké was never a natural athlete. He stood 5-6 in high school until growing five inches his senior year. But his swing impressed Solá
“Kiké was not the kind of prospects 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 double-header. 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.
“What surprised me was his versatility,” Solá said. “We signed him as a shortstop and projected him to be a starting major league second baseman. But he plays almost every positon. And I don’t doubt that he could play catcher if he wanted. They use him as a utility player, but he could be a starter and do even more because he can win a game with his bat, his defense and his speed. He’s also very intelligent. Despite that he doesn’t play for us anymore, it gives me a lot of satisfaction that he broke into the majors with us.”
Kiké is effusive and kinetic, probably why he has dealt so well with all the personal burdens of the past year.
“Kiké is always plays with a lot of joy,” Solá said. “You rarely see him pissed off. He’s always looking at the lighter side of things. It’s not that he doesn’t take his job seriously. But he does what all players should be doing, which is enjoying the game to the max. That attitude helps him and helps his teammates.”
This story doesn’t end on the World Series stage. It will continue with the players’ relief efforts for the victims of Hurricane María. Both Correa and Hernández have taken advantage of the platform that baseball offers them to raise funds and send supplies.
“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.”
After the World Series, Solá will continue with his job at the academy while also working as general manager of the Santurce Crabbers in the Puerto Rico winter league, which may be forced to play an abbreviated schedule in January. Besides the fact that power has not been restored to most of the island, most ballparks need extensive repairs.
But if and when they play, Solá will continue prospecting for new talent, for the next Correa and Hernández. They say lightning doesn’t strike twice. In Solá’s case, it already has.
Featured Image: Scott Halleran / Getty Images Sport