Nick Gonzales will answer his phone sometime after 4 p.m. on Wednesday and his life will be changed forever.
Gonzales, a former New Mexico State infielder and Cienega High School baseball star, is certain to be taken in the first round of the MLB draft. Most experts say he’ll be taken with one of the first 10 picks.
If Gonzales gets selected higher than seventh, he would become the highest-picked player in Tucson baseball history, passing Sahuaro High School’s Sammy Khalifa, who was drafted seventh by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1982.
Todd Welch knows both Khalifa and Gonzales. Welch was teammates in middle school with Khalifa, and the two were high school rivals. Welch followed Khalifa when he made it to the big leagues in 1985.
“One of the coolest things in the world was to hear Vin Scully say Sam Khalifa’s name, because I had this overwhelming feeling of pride, because I played against that guy, and I grew up around that guy. That’s going to be the same feeling I have for Nick,” Welch said.
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“I had always put Sam Khalifa on a pedestal, and now Nick is about to take that spot.”
Welch ran Cienega’s program from 2001 to 2011 before joining the staff at Pima College. He returned to the Bobcats in 2016 to join Kelly Johnson’s staff and coached Gonzales at the club level for Baseball’s Next Level, founded by Bryan Huie, who has been a pro baseball scout in Arizona for more than 15 years. At Cienega, Welch coached former Arizona Wildcats third baseman Seth Mejias-Brean, who made his big-league debut last year with the San Diego Padres.
Mejias-Brean had a big-leaguer’s body as a high-schooler. Gonzales? Not so much.
While he posted a .543 batting average and .632 on-base percentage during his senior season in 2017 and was viewed as one of the top players in Arizona, Gonzales was criticized for being too short. He’s listed at 5 feet, 10 inches.
“Nick was good. He was the best kid on the team and one of the best kids in the state,” Welch said. “But he wasn’t what he is today. And what he is today is through all his hard work and educating himself and mastering his craft. ... Nick has busted his hind end for everything that he’s getting right now.”
Johnson said, “The eye test might be the worst thing in sports.”
“They look for the guy who is over 6 feet tall. They look for the flashy player,” Johnson said. “Nick wasn’t your standard 6-foot-1 baseball player, except he was a great player. He didn’t pass the eye test, and that’s unfair.
“I’ve talked to several (colleges), and they openly said, ‘We missed him.’ And I told them, ‘Yeah, you guys did.’ ”
Gonzales’ high school coaches witnessed his relentless work ethic and constant drive to improve firsthand.
After a normal practice, he spent an hour at batting practice. After chopping away at more than 100 balls, it was time to field ground balls. Sometimes, he would take more batting practice after that.
“He had an intent to everything he did, so nothing was done at half-speed,” Johnson said. “His intentions were to get better and make everyone around him better.”
The work ethic, coupled with an off-the-charts baseball intelligence, has created a pro prospect that’s as accomplished as anyone in recent Tucson history.
Gonzales arrived at New Mexico State as a walk-on, rising to an All-American, NCAA batting champion, Cape Cod MVP and, as of this spring, Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of the Year.
Johnson, his former high school coach, calls Gonzales “the total package.”
There’s certain to be comparisons. Tucson has produced numerous elite-level MLB players. Johnson compared Gonzales’ skill set to fellow Tucsonans Ian Kinsler and J.J. Hardy, players who combined to make $190 million over 27 combined big-league seasons.
“You can pick a guy who’s not a super-superstar but is one of the top-10 guys in the league who’s constantly there,” Johnson said. “Not the flashy guy getting the $40 million contract, but guys who are everyday players, they make a ton of money and are good every year.”
Welch, meanwhile, paid Gonzales the ultimate compliment.
“Even though they don’t play the same position, just the way they go about the game, that’s the category I’d put him in. I’d put him in Mike Trout’s class,” he said.
Wednesday’s draft will provide the former Cienega star with life-changing money. Players taken in the top 10 typically receive contracts worth between $4.7 million and $8.4 million, depending on what they can negotiate with their teams.
Johnson said he asked Gonzales about the money. Did Gonzales understand that he is about to make more money than most people ever dream of?
“You know what Nick’s response was? ‘I haven’t really thought about it,’” Johnson said. “And he was very nonchalant about it. He really is a special kid.
“The world is his now. He now gets an opportunity to play a game for his job.”
