The 5 Most Intriguing 2019 MLB Draft Backgrounds

Image credit: Yorvis Torrealba celebrates with his Tampa teammates after the D-II final in June. (Grant Halverson/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

Baseball America draft report cards analyze all 30 clubs’ draft classes each season. To give you a taste of their comprehensiveness, here are five of the most intriguing player backgrounds in the 2019 draft class.

For a more in-depth look…

1. Rockies outfielder Yorvis Torrealba (20th round), the son of 13-year major leaguer Yorvit Torrealba, Yorvis was kidnapped in Venezuela when he was 11 years old and held for a $500,000 ransom.

2. Indians righthander Jake Forrester (37) is the son of Mike Forrester, one of the world’s best competitive timber sportsmen who was once profiled on The Colbert Report.

3. Reds catcher Luke Berryhill (13) spent one season at South Carolina and is also a talented country singer who could carve out a career in the music industry one day.

4. Mariners lefthander Adam Macko (7) is trying to become just the third native-born Slovakian to make the big leagues. He began playing baseball in his home country before moving to Ireland, where he played Little League, and eventually to Canada.

5. Tigers third baseman Andre Lipcius (3) comes from a family of educators and majored in nuclear engineering at Tennessee.