Eyes on the prize: Arizona’s Mason White sharpens MLB Draft case | Michael Lev

What if I told you that the Mason White we saw down the stretch for Arizona baseball — the one who terrorized opposing pitchers — is the real Mason White?

What if I told you that the Wildcats’ second-leading home run hitter of all time and career leader in extra-base hits actually has another gear?

What if I told you that something changed in early May that helped White become an even better hitter — and that it wasn’t just a hot streak?

If all of the above is true — which it is; I’ll explain shortly — White is destined to have a prosperous career in pro baseball. He will prove to be a worthwhile investment for whichever franchise selects him in the 2025 MLB Draft, set for Sunday and Monday.

You see, White couldn’t see quite right for roughly the first two-thirds of the ‘25 season, especially during night games.

“I just wasn’t seeing as well as I thought I could,” White said during a phone interview this week.

White wore prescription Oakley rec specs over the latter half of his high school career at Salpointe Catholic. He switched to contact lenses heading into his freshman year at Arizona.

His prescription remained the same as he ascended the depth chart as a UA rookie and became an all-conference performer as a sophomore. It wasn’t as if White was playing poorly in 2025 either. Entering the May 9-11 series against Utah, he ranked second on the team in home runs and first in RBIs.

But White had been striking out a lot, and he just didn’t feel like his usual self. After experimenting with his old Oakleys during the May 2-4 series against TCU — eagle-eyed observers might have noticed the change — White came to an inescapable conclusion: He needed to go see the eye doctor.

Prescription for success

White visited Alvernon Optical on Sunrise Drive on May 5. The optometrist confirmed White’s suspicions: “Your eyes have definitely changed.”

White got new contacts. He looked out a window.

“Wow, that’s way different,” White recalled saying. “That is way clearer than I’ve been seeing.”

As White and his mom, Brandy, left the office, the doctor told her: “He’ll probably starting hitting better.”

“I just kinda laughed about it,” White said. “Like OK, whatever, funny joke. And then I ended up having a really good month.”

“Really good” is an understatement.

White batted .446 in May. He hit 10 home runs in an 11-game span from May 9-31.

White’s splits from before and after his visit to the optometrist are, well, eye-popping.

Before he got his new contacts, White had nine home runs in 193 at-bats, a 13-52 walk-to-strikeout ratio, a .316/.378/.591 slash line and a .969 OPS.

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After? Try 11 home runs in 64 at-bats, a 12-13 BB-K ratio, a .359/.500/.984 slash line and a 1.484 OPS. Whoa.

White had 11 homers and 26 RBIs in Arizona’s final 18 games. If you project those numbers over the Wildcats’ ultimate total of 65 games, he would have had 39 homers and 94 RBIs. The UA records are 24 (Shelley Duncan, 2001) and 89 (Kiko Romero, 2023).

It’s possible that White just got hot. Or that he felt a sense of urgency with the Wildcats struggling and his UA career nearing a conclusion.

Most likely, it was his new contact lenses.

“Whether that was it or it was just a coincidence ... I know he felt a lot better with them on,” UA coach Chip Hale said.

You might be wondering why White didn’t go to the eye doc sooner if he wasn’t feeling right or seeing clearly. His mom had urged him to go. But you know how most guys are when it comes to medical issues: We brush them off.

After White finally relented — and enjoyed spectacular results with his new prescription — he came to another inescapable conclusion: You should always listen to your mother.

“My mom wasn’t mad,” White said. “But she was like, ‘You should’ve done this earlier.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll take responsibility for that.’”

Overlooked yet again

I first learned of White’s vision correction when the team was returning from the Eugene Regional on June 2. I saw White wearing glasses at Portland International Airport. He told me the whole story — but asked that I hold off on publicizing it.

“I didn’t want it to be a distraction,” White said this week. “I wanted the attention to be on our team and us playing good baseball and winning baseball games — not all about me and my newfound vision and all this stuff. I just wanted to keep it under the radar.”

If ever there was a time to let the world know, it’s right now. MLB clubs have been apprised of the change White made. Whether it changes where he gets picked in the draft remains to be seen.

White’s consensus ranking is about 150, which would place him in the fifth round. Draft analysts might be underestimating him — which is nothing new.

White was barely recruited out of high school and only ended up at Arizona — his dream school, where his father and grandfather also played — after former UA assistant Dave Lawn advised the newly hired Hale to watch White work out.

“I came into Arizona kind of an underwhelming prospect,” White said. “Definitely not a pro prospect at the time. An underwhelming college prospect. No one really knew what to expect. Me and my family knew that I could do it at this level. But not a lot of people outside the circle knew.

“My freshman fall was proving that I could play baseball at Arizona and survive in a D1 world. Ever since then, I just kept doing my thing.”

White gives all the credit to Hale, who saw in White what others had missed. Hale looked past White’s 5-foot-9 frame, his exaggerated leg kick and his swing-and-miss tendencies. Instead of dwelling on what White wasn’t, Hale foresaw what White could become.

In hindsight, it’s as clear as White’s vision the moment he popped in his new contacts.