FAYETTEVILLE — The final two days of the 2017 MLB Draft were hard on Carson Shaddy.
He thought he had played his last game at Baum Stadium a week earlier when Arkansas was eliminated by Missouri State in the NCAA Regional. He had grounded out to the shortstop for the second out in a 1-2-3 ninth.
Baseball players almost never spend five seasons in college - few even make it to their senior year - so Shaddy assumed his next stop would be on the busses of rookie-league baseball. But as he waited for his call, Day 2 became Day 3 of the draft and eventually all 40 rounds were over. He said his mom was crying when he wasn’t drafted.
That isn’t to say there weren’t opportunities. Several teams inquired as to whether he would accept small signing bonuses - overtures he said “weren’t worth” foregoing his final year of college eligibility.
Shortly before the final picks were off the board, Shaddy tweeted a screenshot of an iPhone note that began with, “After a long and disappointing 3 days, it’s obvious that it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go,” and ended with, “ONE MORE YEAR!!!!!”
Four months later, Shaddy is at peace with being the rare fifth-year senior in college baseball. The disappointment has turned into drive to become better - a key piece in the Razorbacks’ supremely talented 2018 squad.
“Coming back, I haven’t regretted one thing about it because this team is the best team I’ve been on since I’ve been here,” Shaddy said. “There’s so much leadership and so much talent, and there’s so much depth - it’s just incredible. I’m very, very excited about this team.”
His teammates seem happy to have him.
“I’ve known Carson forever and he’s kind of like an older brother to me,” said catcher Grant Koch, who played with Shaddy at Fayetteville High School. “I’m happy to have him back. I think everybody is.”
Shaddy is one of the leaders on this year’s team. He was a team captain last season and his experience at Arkansas trumps that of even some of his coaches. He’s outlasted a hitting coach, a pitching coach, a strength coach and multiple volunteer coaches during his five years. Only the head coach Dave Van Horn, director of operations Clay Goodwin and trainer Corey Wood have been around the program longer.
“It’s cool to get to see all the different kind of personalities that have come through here,” Shaddy said. “…My favorite thing is being a Hog, so I’ve decided to take it one more year and enjoy this year.”
Shaddy projects to start at second base against next season, making the first time in his career that he’ll play the same spot two years in a row. He came to Arkansas as a catcher, spent most of his redshirt sophomore year at third base and even played some outfield.
If Shaddy starts at second, as expected, it will mean that he held off a talented group of middle infielders, most notably Hunter Wilson, who was expected to be a key player last season before suffering a deep shin bruise in mid-March that kept him out the rest of the year.
Shaddy’s strength is his bat. He batted .279 - down from a team-best .332 average a year earlier - with 8 home runs and 40 RBI last season, which included a strong start to the campaign. His batting average peaked at .410 in early March and was still .350 following the Razorbacks’ SEC opening series against Mississippi State.
In that series, Shaddy had two multi-hit games and hit a home run in each of the final two games of the series, an Arkansas sweep.
His weakness has been his fielding. Shaddy led the Razorbacks in errors each of the past two seasons, with 14 in 2015 and 16 last season.
“I feel like the last month of the season I showed I was more comfortable. Getting more experience at second has really helped me. I think this has been my best fall fielding and hitting. I just needed experience…I got put at second when I had never played second, so I knew there would be some growing pains.
“It’s nice to be able to sit in the same spot and try to excel there….I feel like my feet are better and my hands are better, and the game has just kind of slowed down a little bit, too.”
Van Horn, a former middle infielder, has worked extensively with Shaddy at second the past year. Shaddy missed some of fall practice with a wrist injury - it was unclear whether it was related to a 95 mph fastball from Jackson Rutledge that he took off the wrist - but Van Horn indicated he liked what he saw in the field from Shaddy when healthy.
“At some point instincts take over a little bit,” Van Horn said. “He knows where to be every time and I think he’s just gotten better with experience, repetition and just playing. He had a really good fall with the bat and the glove.”