Cruz Selected In 3rd Round of MLB Draft
6/11/2020 9:40:00 PM | Baseball
SECAUCUS, N.J. – Rice junior shortstop Trei Cruz was selected in the third round of the 2020 Major League Baseball amateur draft held on Thursday (June 11).
Cruz was picked in the third round by the Detroit Tigers as the 73rd player taken overall. The selection was Cruz' third time to be selected in the MLB Draft after previously being picked by Houston in 2017 and Washington in 2019. "The third time is the charm," Cruz had stated a few hours before the draft on social media. "It was a crazy day. I had been anxious all day, and then to hear my named announced was surreal. It go so loud in our house I could not even hear myself think."
A former prep star at Episcopal High School, Cruz was second on the team in hitting (.328) when the 2020 season came to an early end. He led the Owls in doubles (7), runs (9) and RBI (8). He also led the team, and ranked among the Conference USA leaders in walks (18 in 16 games played) for a team-best .487 on-base percentage.
Cruz is part of a baseball family legacy with deep Rice roots. He and his younger brother Antonio (a current member of the Owls' baseball team) are the sons of former major league player and Rice first round draft pick Jose Cruz, Jr. The two current Owls are the nephews of 2003 Rice National Champion team member Enrique Cruz, and they are the grandsons Jose Cruz, a longtime major league player who starred with the hometown Houston Astros for more than a decade.
In the 2020 Rice season Trei played just one position (shortstop) where he rarely took a breather, accounting for 137 of the Owls 139 defensive innings in the field (98.6 percent). He maintained a .955 fielding percentage and turned or started 12 of the Owls' 16 double plays in the brief 16-game college season. In his Rice debut season of 2018 Cruz was named to Collegiate Baseball Magazine's Freshman All-America Team. Early in the 2019 season he was named college baseball's National Player of the Week after driving in nine runs in a nine-inning game.
Trei drastically improved his draft position from a year ago under the daily training of second year Rice head coach Matt Bragga. In one season Trei went from being a 37th round pick to a third round selection.
"Trei is a young man who has worked as hard, or harder, than anyone," coach Bragga said. "We're all just so proud of him and happy for his family – a family with such a tremendous baseball tradition. He has represented his family, and his Rice Baseball family, with a very high standard and we wish him the very best in his pro career.
