@adbono posted:I may have told this story before but it applies to this situation so here goes. The first day of JuCo baseball our HC lined us up and one by one had all 30 players step forward, introduce themselves, and state what position they played. 8 of us said SS. After everyone had spoken our HC pointed at Bobby Merrifield and said that’s my SS. All you other guys that said SS will have to learn another position.
Point being, you are way better off if you learn to play multiple positions before you show up on a college campus.
My son was a shortstop in middle school through his first year on varsity soph year of high school. He was an all conference shortstop. But on my 13u to 16u teams he played wherever the pitcher came from except catcher and first. We had a better shortstop from another conference. It allowed for the least disruption of the defensive alignment. He was versatile enough to play everywhere.
The summer after soph year his 17u travel coach decided his best position was center. His high school coach moved him to center. There was a decent soph shortstop coming up to varsity. He was recruited as an outfielder. He started for two and a half seasons at seven different positions. It was an example of “you hit, you play.” They kept recruiting new studs. He kept hitting. He played somewhere. His nickname was Zo after Ben Zobrist.