Cedar Rapids Washington grad Jake Bockenstedt gets to pursue his professional baseball dream

CEDAR RAPIDS — For a guy who wasn’t in demand, Jake Bockenstedt sure ended up being in demand.

The Cedar Rapids Washington grad went unselected in this past week’s Major League Baseball Draft. He got a call from a team around the 10th round but nothing came of it.

Another club phoned him during the 20th and final round, though that club already had completed its draft. The Chicago White Sox told Bockenstedt they’d like to sign him to a free-agent contract if no one took him the rest of the way.

No one did, though the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants called the right-handed pitcher from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville about five to 10 minutes after the White Sox, also to offer him a free-agent deal. From not in demand to suddenly in demand.

Since the White Sox offered him a deal first, they won. Bockenstedt flew Saturday to Charlotte, N.C., to sign his contract and take part in a week-long camp of draft picks and other signees.

That camp also will include Western Dubuque grad and former University of Mississippi catcher Calvin Harris, who was a fourth-round pick of the White Sox.

“It’s something you think about as a kid,” Bockenstedt said. “It’s a dream to hopefully get to play for a team one day. So it’s definitely a huge step in the process to get an opportunity. Now it’s just kind of up to me to make the most out of the opportunity and see how far I can make this thing go.”

Bockenstedt was an ace starter for a Washington team that made it to the Class 4A state tournament championship game in 2018. He pitched two years at Southeastern Community College in Burlington, then went to SIU-E.

He was a starter for the Cougars in 2021, played a significant bullpen role for them in 2022, then moved back into the rotation this past season where he was a second-team all-Ohio Valley Conference pick, allowing fewer hits than innings pitched and averaging more than a strikeout per inning.

Along the way, he bumped his four-seam fastball up from the high-80s to low-90s, which piqued the interest of scouts, as did an improvement in his secondary pitches: a curveball, slider and a recently added cut fastball. He pitched a couple of games at the completion of his college season with the nearby Alton River Dragons of the Prospect League and a couple more in the MLB Draft League.

“There were talks about me maybe getting to be a draft pick. But in my situation, I knew that being a fifth-year senior and not having any eligibility left that I have to leave all avenues open,” Bockenstedt said. “So I wasn’t putting too much weight on the draft. I was really just hoping for an opportunity. When they called me after the draft, I was through the roof about it.”

Bockenstedt will be assigned to one of the White Sox minor-league affiliates after the rookie camp in North Carolina. He hopes someday to join Washington grad A.J. Puk in the big leagues.

“We never really talked or anything, but he has definitely shown me the steps that this can be done if you put your mind to it and put in the work that it’s going to take,” Bockenstedt said. “It can happen.”

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