When the Colorado Rockies drafted him 48th overall as a third baseman out of Stillwater High School in Stillwater, Oklahoma, just like someone else the Rockies famously drafted 19 years earlier, the comparisons that greeted Ryan Vilade were inevitable.
That doesn't make them fair.
"He鈥檚 definitely a legend at Stillwater High School," Vilade told Jack Etkin and Baseball America about his hometown's leading ballplayer, Matt Holliday. "The greatest guy ever to probably play at Stillwater.鈥
Vilade, now 25 and mostly an outfielder, finalized a minor league deal Tuesday with Holliday's second big league organization, the Cardinals' player development department announced. The deal includes a non-roster invitation to major league spring training.
The 48th overall selection by the Rockies out of high school in 2017, Vilade spent the past two seasons in the Pittsburgh and Detroit organizations. He made his major league debut in 2021 with the Rockies, and he appeared in 17 games this past season with the Tigers, most of them coming in July and early August.
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A right-handed batter, Vilade hit .178/.208/.244 in the majors with Detroit, and he split 12 starts between left and right field.
He spent most of the summer with Class AAA Toledo, where he hit .278/.346/.449 in 108 games. He stole 20 bases, hit 13 home runs and had 64 RBIs. Through 446 Triple-A games, Vilade is a .271/.350/.399 hitter with 31 homers and 49 stolen bases.
It was actually a Holliday who originally brought Vilade to Stillwater for the final year of high school. A Texas native, Vilade had been around the Rangers as a young player, spending time with Elvis Andrus at shortstop and taking batting practice with Joey Gallo. But when his father, James Vilade, took a job as an assistant coach for Josh Holliday's Oklahoma State baseball program, Ryan went with him to play on Matt Holliday's old stomping grounds.
Stillwater's starting shortstop in the years before Matt's eldest Jackson took over, Vilade starred beyond Oklahoma as a high schooler. He played on Team USA's 18-under gold medal team at the COPABE Pan Am "AAA" Championships in 2016 and during a Home Run Derby contest at Wrigley Field he won by outslugging future big leaguers Jo Adell and Hunter Greene. They were both first-round picks in 2017, and Vilade was wooed away from a commitment to Oklahoma State by the Rockies' 48th overall pick.聽 聽
He represented Colorado in the 2021 Futures Game, the same summer he appeared in three games and got six at-bats for the Rockies, four of them in a single game at Washington.
Vilade then went 962 days between his debut and his first big league hit, which came this past summer for the Tigers, complete with his first RBI, too.
鈥淭here鈥檚 that period of time you start questioning,鈥 Vilade . 鈥淏ut you have to keep going, you have to keep working. And that鈥檚 what I did. I was just looking for an opportunity, and that鈥檚 why I signed here with the Tigers.鈥
In the weeks leading up to Major League Baseball's winter meetings in Dallas, the Cardinals, like most teams, have been completing deals at the minor league level to start filling in depth for spring training and rosters for the highest affiliates. This used to be a time of year when the Cardinals would sign a new backup catcher, but with the focus going toward youth (especially at that position), the acquisitions have been about building out the depth chart.
The Cardinals previous signed infielder Jose Barrero and right-hander Michael Gomez to minor league deals with invites to spring training. They also acquired right-handed starter Roddery Munoz off waivers from the Marlins.
The winter meetings are set to begin next Monday, and the Cardinals expect much of their focus will be on trade conversations, as detailed previously by the Post-Dispatch.
'Tis the season for minor league movement throughout the majors. A week ago, on the eve of Thanksgiving, 11 teams signed 13 players to minor league deals, according to the transactions list for Minor League Baseball.聽
