Drew Cavanaugh | averybaseball

What Drew Cavanaugh Gave Up To Get Drafted By the San Francisco Giants

At age 14, he spent the summer away from his family and friends playing with a national team in Cincinnati.
At age 14 during his freshman year in high school, he spent every day in the fall with his brother on the baseball field for 2 hours after school working through the Chicago White Sox program that I gave him.
At ages 15,16 and 17, he spent the summers away from his family and friends playing baseball in Florida.
At age 17, he left home for his senior year in high school and attended IMG Academy in Florida. No more high school basketball, or prom, or homecoming. He sacrificed all his senior year activities with all his friends.
After winning IMG’s National Team MVP, he only had one offer - Eastern Florida Junior College.
After his first year at Eastern Florida, he gave up hitting right-handed – something that he had done for 13 years. For the first time in his life, he started facing left-handed pitchers while batting left-handed.
For his second year at Eastern Florida, Drew hit .314, 8 HR’s and 32 RBI and being named the National Co-Defensive Player of the Year in Division 1 Junior College. Next, Drew went to Florida Southern, a Division II school in Lakeland.
During 2023 at Florida Southern, Drew hit .316 12 HR’s and 42 RBI and won numerous first-team conference and regional awards.
After the season ended, he spent the summer just like the past 3: Living by himself, driving hours alone from his home or hotel room to the training facility, then back to his hotel, then to the ballpark for evening games.
After he went unselected the first two days of the 2023 draft, Drew entered the portal and had to endure difficult conversations with teammates and coaches that he cared about to let them know he was leaving. If he didn’t get drafted on day 3, he would have to make the jump to Division I.

Start Early, Work Hard and The Sky is the Limit!!

In early 2007, I could see the annoyance in the younger brother of the seven- year- old I was coaching during a lesson. All he wanted to do was hit. After a few minutes of conversation with his dad, I agreed to work with him only if he was willing to learn how to switch hit. I placed the ball on the tee and set up the five- year -old on the left side of the plate. He swung as hard as he could, missed the ball and hit me directly in the kneecap. I thought he broke it. I was dying and I tried not to show how much it hurt; I did not want to discourage this driven young boy after only one swing. Now, over 100,000 swings later, coaching him with many years of hard work as a switch hitter and a catcher, Drew Cavanaugh has turned into one of the best defensive catchers in the country with the added bonus of being a great switch hitter. Something missing in the game today are great defensive and offensive catchers.

After his Junior Year, Drew earned First Team All-State at Stoney Creek HS and held Perfect Game’s second-best recorded POP Time at 1.78 Seconds. Here are Drew’s current Perfect Game numbers.

https://www.perfectgame.org/Players/Playerprofile.aspx?ID=462484

Drew had to make a very difficult decision this year. Did he want to leave all his friends for his senior year of high school to attend IMG Academy in Florida? I give him a lot of credit for making a very difficult decision to leave not only his friends, but his family too in order to pursue his dream of eventually playing professional baseball.

As of today, he has made the national travel team at the IMG Academy with a roster filled with fantastic players.

https://www.imgacademy.com/boarding-school/athletics/baseball

During the recent weekend of January 18 and 19, Drew competed in Perfect Game’s World Showcase against many players from the Caribbean. This was the 4th consecutive Perfect Game showcase where he outperformed all other catchers. Below is the scouting blog report from the World Showcase where Drew was selected as one of Perfect Games’ few Top Prospects. Drew’s performance at the showcase included throwing out Antonio Gleaton attempting to steal second. Antonio recorded the second best 60-yard time at 6.4 seconds.

Within the next several weeks, you will be able to see a profile/interview video on Perfect Game’s YouTube channel highlighting Drew’s talent. Drew has continued to work hard, and we wish him the very best in his senior year.