Betts, Swanson, Turner: No. 9 Draft pick models game after elite shortstops

This story originally ran previously, before Steele Hall was drafted with the No. 9 pick by the Reds.

PHOENIX -- Steele Hall remembers falling in love with the game on a small baseball field in Alabama. The sights, the sounds, the smells, his dad coaching him in T-ball. And his dad wasn't just handing out juice boxes and snacks. He was helping Steele learn the intricacies of how to swing.

Little did anyone know how impactful those mechanics would become over a decade later when Hall emerged as one of the premier prospects in the 2025 Draft class.

“There's always intricate parts and always stuff to learn,” Hall said about what’s continued to draw him to baseball. “Nobody's ever fully figured out the game, so I'm always just trying to figure it out.”

That analytical approach has served Hall well. Even being a member of the 2025 Draft class took some foresight. When he reclassified last summer, pro ball and the Draft weren’t the priority -- it was to arrive early on campus in Knoxville and join a University of Tennessee program that churns out pro-ready talent.

But after what was technically Hall's junior season at Hewitt-Trussville High School in Trussville, Ala., in which he turned heads nearly every time he took the field, he finds himself as the No. 12 Draft prospect and will be just 17 years old on Draft day -- something that will work in his favor as clubs weigh handing him a seven-figure bonus.

“My dad's a big stat-sheet guy, like spreadsheets. So we did a pros-and-cons list to it and we couldn't find any negatives or flaws about it,” Hall said of the decision to reclassify. “So I told my mom and dad, ‘Let's do it. Let's put all the cards in one deck.’”

At the start of this season, when MLB Pipeline unveiled its Top 100 Draft Prospects list, Hall’s name wasn’t on it. Having been committed to Tennessee since August 2022, and with the elements in line for reclassification, he was in the express lane to campus. There was no reason to deviate from the plan. But then came this spring.

Hall hit .484 with eight home runs, earning all-state honors. When MLB Pipeline expanded its Draft Prospects list to 150 and recalibrated for spring results and feedback from the scouting industry, Hall’s name appeared -- at No. 13 overall, an enormous jump. Suddenly, the right-handed-hitting shortstop had what everyone wants right before the Draft: helium.

Hall is on pace to become the first middle infielder selected in the first round out of the Alabama prep ranks since 1971 (Condredge Holloway, fourth overall). But it was just last season that the Yellowhammer State churned out a second-rounder, Carter Johnson, who received a significant over-slot bonus ($2.8 million) from the Marlins in order to forgo his collegiate commitment to the University of Alabama.

Hall and Johnson are close from their years on the prep circuit. Johnson took part in the MLB Draft Combine last season, as Hall did this June. The extensive interviews with big league front office personnel, the medical testing -- it can all be a lot to take in, especially with so much on the line. But Hall has leaned on Johnson throughout the process.

Hall was named Alabama’s Mr. Baseball for 2025, an honor that Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson received back in 2019 during his senior year at Morgan Academy. But while Johnson drew Henderson comparisons a year ago, Hall is a different type of ballplayer: speed is more his game than power, and he hits from the right side. While he can appreciate Alabama history, he looks to other big league shortstops for his parallels.

“I model my game after Mookie Betts, his swing. I love watching him swing,” Hall said. “And Dansby Swanson for his defense and how he carries himself.

“I’ve always watched Trea Turner, but I’ve been hearing [the comparisons] from scouts too.”

Mookie Betts. Dansby Swanson. Trea Turner. That’s a pretty good trio to try to emulate.

But in order to get there, Hall looked in the mirror and knew there had to be a change. He heard the whispers -- he was “just” 152 pounds. So to facilitate the addition of some good weight, he turned to the weight room and to his most reliable chef -- his mom.

“Shout out my mom,” said a laughing Hall. “It was grass-fed ground beef, eggs, rice and some fruits. I was a big grapes guy. Grapes were really, really good during that. It was really just trying to eat right.”

Hall now checks in at 6-foot and 180 pounds, much more physically prepared for the rigors of the next level. But that doesn’t mean he’s lost a step. His 70-grade speed puts him near the top of the 2025 class, with some evaluators levying the full 80. He has a quick right-handed swing and has a record of hammering the ball from gap to gap.

But what the five traditional tools (hit, power, run, arm, field) don’t measure is baseball aptitude and off-the-field makeup, both key elements in what can ultimately sway an organization in selecting one player over another come Draft day.

“I think there's two things that I think I do really well,” Hall said. “I like to [think] that I'm pretty good on defense and just knowing the game overall -- intuition and just IQ of the game.”

What started out as falling in love with the nuances of a swing has morphed into falling in love with the entirety of the process, even if it came to fruition a year earlier than expected.