No. 2 Draft prospect Emerson named Gatorade National Player of the Year

They might be different players, but Grady Emerson can't shake comparisons to Royals All-Star Bobby Witt Jr. -- and he’s just fine with that.

Both are/were ranked second in their Draft classes, with Witt eventually going No. 2 overall in 2019 and Emerson currently coming in at the No. 2 prospect in the 2026 Draft class.

Both were high school shortstops in north Texas. Both have been mentored by former Major Leaguer Rusty Greer.

And now, both are known as Gatorade National Baseball Player of Year winners. Emerson joined Witt in that category when he was surprised with the award last week by Greer, his teammates and his family, even receiving a congratulatory call from former big leaguer Eric Hosmer.

Emerson is now in pretty good company, with former award winners combining for four MLB MVP awards, 48 All-Star appearances and 32 MLB first-round Draft picks. In addition to Witt, it’s a list that includes Reds right-hander Hunter Greene, another No. 2 overall pick. Seth Hernandez, Konnor Griffin and Max Clark won the award the previous three years, and all were top 10 picks in their respective Drafts.

A transfer to Fort Worth Christian High School to play for Greer paid off, as Emerson led his team to the state championship game and hit .532/.648/1.013 with seven homers and 31 steals for the year. The Texas recruit hits left-handed, and perhaps his raw tools aren't quite as loud as Witt's were when he was coming out of high school. But not only has Emerson not run away from the comparisons, he's leaned into it, especially in recognizing the similarities in their paths, which now includes winning this prestigious award.

"This fall, before the season ever got going, me, Rusty, my dad, and Bobby Witt, we all sat down and we all got a nice little lunch together and basically was just an hour for me to fire off questions, ask him about his experiences, his mentality," Emerson said in a recent episode of the MLB Pipeline Podcast. "I was super grateful for that because again it's not every single day you get to sit down with an All-Star shortstop, arguably the best shortstop in the game right now."

The connection to Witt was one of many reasons why Emerson made the move for his senior year of high school.

"A big part of why moving over to Fort Worth Christian is that Rusty also had the connections to Bobby, and he was talking about Bobby's experiences throughout high school and kind of the negativity he got, the positive stuff he got, how he handled it, what he did, what he focused on," Emerson explained. "And then eventually you're going to sit down with him and hear it from Bobby's mouth, you're like, 'OK, like what he's saying is true.' Obviously, I want to do the same things he did, because I'd say he's having a pretty successful career so far, so it's a pretty good guy to want to be like.

"Rusty definitely used him as like a model for me, and not saying I have to do everything he did or I have to act the same way, but just kind of showing like a little guideline of what are the small things I can do to really put myself above the other kids."