The disappointment was short-lived.
Former Mt. Vernon High School and Ball State University baseball standout Hunter Dobbins didn’t have to wait long after not being selected in this week’s Major League Baseball draft.
Just minutes after the draft concluded Tuesday, his phone got busy with calls and text messages.
When the Detroit Tigers organization told the Cardinals’ junior catcher they would match any offer from another club, he knew he had a place to play.
“Going into the draft, I was talking to 12 to 14 teams,” Dobbins said. “I thought I was going to get drafted … but you never really know what’s going to happen. As soon as the draft was over I had three texts or calls from teams within about two minutes. The Tigers were willing to counter any team whatever they threw out, moneywise. They were willing to give me a chance and that’s all I could really ask for.
“I was a bit disappointed how late I went, but as soon as I got the chance … all you need is a chance.”
The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers also had offers for Dobbins, a star infielder for the Marauders who moved to catcher at Ball State. He caught some with Mt. Vernon, but it wasn’t his main position until he got to Muncie.
“When I first got (to Ball State), I always thought I was an infielder,” Dobbins said. “They said, ‘If you want to play pro, the fastest way to the big leagues is catching and you’re athletic enough to do it.’ I caught every day, fall, winter, and spring my freshman year.”
In 2021 at Mt. Vernon High School, Dobbins was the Hancock County Player of the Year and helped lead the Marauders to a regional title. He had 10 home runs, 12 doubles, 38 RBI and hit .558.
The success continued at Ball State. In his first game he hit two home runs and had four RBI. He missed time with an injury, but hit .339 with eight home runs and 26 RBI in 29 games.
He had a rough sophomore season, hitting just .209 with nine homers and 29 RBI. Though struggling at the plate in his second collegiate year, he had become one of the country’s top defensive catchers behind it and was named to the 2023 Mid-American Conference All-Defensive Team.
He went into 2024 as a nominee for the Buster Posey Award (giving to the country’s top collegiate catcher). He bounced back at the plate, too, hitting .278 with 18 home runs, 17 doubles and 53 RBI in 59 games. He was selected second team All-MAC and was considered the conference’s top prospect going into the draft by D1Baseball.com.
The rough sophomore season made him better, Dobbins said. It was the first time he had ever struggled at the game.
“I’d never been through that and mentally I didn’t know what to do and I let it effect me pretty much the entire year,” he said. “I learned a lot. I’d get to the plate and I would think, ‘Don’t strike out,’ instead of ‘I’m going to hit it here or hit it hard somewhere.’ I kept going up with a negative attitude and telling myself I’m a defensive catcher.
“In pro ball you are going to go through struggles. I know I am going to go through a point where I’m not doing well. It’s how you respond from it and what you do to get out of it. Last year kind of set me up, prepared me to fail and that’s really what I needed.”
Dobbins’ bounce-back season could have been even better, numbers-wise, had he not decided to play through a hamstring/calf injury. But it all worked out, the dream of being a professional baseball player is coming true.
He will sign with the Tigers at their facility in Lakeland, Florida next week and likely train with the club before being assigned to one of the team’s affiliates, possibly the Rookie League team (Florida Complex League Tigers) or the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers of the Florida State League.
“All my life I’ve worked hard to do this,” Dobbins said. “In high school, I was good at football, but I gave up football because I really thought I could be good at baseball. I thought I had a chance. I trained all the time, worked out all the time, transformed my body when I got to college. In high school I thought I had a chance to be a pro or get drafted. It motivated me to work harder.
”Everybody asks, ‘What are you wanting to do for a living? What are you studying?’ I would say I am studying marketing, but I want to be a professional baseball player. Even in high school, people asked what I wanted to do when I grow up and I told them I wanted to be a professional baseball player. To finally be one, it’s just cool. Now everybody can say, ‘He was serious.’”
Dobbins is one of two Marauders beginning their professional baseball careers next week. Recent Mt. Vernon grad Cam Sullivan, a pitcher, was drafted in the seventh round by the Cleveland Guardians. He is expected to sign with the organization over the weekend.
