Kernels’ Navarreto leaves home to get pro baseball career

CEDAR RAPIDS – Though you see guys like Carlos Correa and Jose Berrios getting drafted highly and emerging as top-shelf major league prospects and impending superstars, Puerto Rico doesn't touch the United States as far as visibility with professional scouts.

So Brian Navarreto made the difficult decision five years ago to leave his home on the Caribbean island and attend high school and play baseball in Jacksonville, Florida.

'In Puerto Rico, people don't see you like they do here,” Navarreto said, after his Cedar Rapids Kernels were beaten by Burlington, 5-4, at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'So it was a great opportunity for me, for the scouts to see me and everything. I took the chance, and it worked out.”

Navarreto attended Arlington Country Day School in Jacksonville, learning English and about life in America, as well as honing his baseball skills. He stayed with the family of Chicago Cubs top prospect Javier Baez, another Bayamon, Puerto Rico, native who played at Arlington Country Day School and rode his success there to first-round draft status.

Navarreto, a catcher, went in the sixth round of the 2013 draft to the Minnesota Twins, signed for $250,000 and is someone whom Kernels Manager Jake Mauer says will play in the major leagues someday.

'His bat will determine how long he'll be there,” Mauer said.

Therein has lied the rub in Navarreto's short professional career. He has a .209 batting average in 122 games, though he has raised his average precipitously from the low .100s to .211 after a 2-for-4 game Thursday night.

The kid has come a long way, and with elite defensive skills, it's not at all a stretch to see what Mauer is talking about when he says he's a big leaguer. Navarreto came into Thursday having thrown out 53 percent of would-be basestealers.

'He is, if not the, certainly one of the top two defensive (catchers) in our organization,” Mauer said. 'We've got to continue to figure out a way to get him to hit.”

'I'm working hard every day and not worrying about my average,” Navarreto said. 'Trust myself, too. Trust myself, trust my hands. I know I have to keep working on it. I get better.”

He admits he got caught up in peeking at his sagging batting average too much at times.

'In the middle of the season, yeah,” he said. 'But I know that I had to make adjustments. Now I just feel like if I miss, I miss. I'll have another chance.”

This was not a crisp game for either team, as they made three errors apiece. Starting pitcher Ethan Mildren (2-1) has been rock solid since coming down recently from high-Class A Fort Myers, but allowed seven hits and three runs over four innings to take the loss.

The Kernels (53-38, 12-9) didn't hit until late and still not quite enough. They scored a run in the seventh and another in the ninth on a Navarreto RBI single, but he was stranded at first base as the game ended.

Shortstop Nick Gordon extended his hitting streak to 15 games on a unique sixth-inning infleld single. He hit a roller to first base, with Burlington's Steven Mateo fielding it but failing to tag Gordon, who juked his way past him.

The teams play the final game of their three-game series Friday night at 6:35. It's Iowa State Night, with the Kernels wearing special ISU cardinal-and-gold jerseys that will be auctioned.

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