Two local baseball players drafted into MLB

Arva’s Blake Gillespie has been selected by the New York Yankees, and Wingham’s Tyson Moran was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in Monday’s MLB draft.

A 19 year old from Wingham and a 21 year old from Arva have been drafted into Major League Baseball.

Tyson Moran of Wingham was drafted in the 13th round of Monday’s draft by the Kansas City Royals.

“It hasn’t soaked in yet. I’m sure it will in the next couple of days, but I’m just trying to not take it for granted, and trying to make sure that I remember to go through it slowly and take it step by step so that I don’t get ahead of myself. But no, it hasn’t really sunk in yet,” said Moran.

With friends and family surrounding him at his Wingham home, Moran was picked 398th overall. He had an inkling it would be Kansas City that picked him, because he had a workout with them a couple of months ago.

“So they invited me to Kansas City to do a workout in front of their staff. Some guys get invited to a lot of them. Some guys get a couple invites, some guys get no invites, and still get drafted. In my circumstance, especially being from Canada, it’s a little bit difficult for their scouts to come up and watch me play,” he said.

“So throughout the year, I might only have like one or two shots to kind of showcase my skills in front of their scouting department. So it’s a really good opportunity for their scouts to kind of see guys from Canada, guys like me and guys from across North America to kind of get a better grasp whether they’re a Royals type of player or not,” said Moran.

Moran, who drives more than two hours to play for the Great Lake Canadians near London each week, is a hard-hitting infielder that really caught the attention of scouts in the past several months.

His Great Lake coach, former major leaguer, Jamie Romak, said Moran has all the tools you’d want in a big league player.

“Obviously the hit toolkit is what really stands out with him. But I think the separator is going to be the make up. There’s a tremendous amount of determination in Tyson. You know, he’s a player that Great Lake cut several times, and he kept coming back. He used it as motivation to improve his game and really take off. So I think when it comes to sustaining yourself in a really difficult game, those are kind of the traits that scouts look for. So when you pair a guy who can really hit with a guy who’s super determined, I think you have yourself a major league player one day,” said Romak, who came from London to be with Moran and his family as he was drafted.

Arva local selected by New York Yankees

Blake Gillespie, a 21 year old who attended Medway High School, was selected by the New York Yankees in the 9th round.

Currently, Gillespie pitches for the University of North Carolina Charlotte and threw a no-hitter earlier this year.

— with files from CTV News London’s Brent Lale