When Caden Grice plays first base for Clemson baseball, his father, Brad Grice, is always in the stands, chatty and relaxed, sharing laughs with fans while cheering on the Tigers.
When Grice takes the mound, however, Brad doesn’t want to be found. He’ll watch alone and in silence, an “absolute nervous wreck,” as he says.
It’s been that way as long as Brad can remember.
To hear Brad tell it, Grice relies on his raw ability as a pitcher while hitting is something he’s honed through years of repetition. That’s why he watches the performances so anxiously.
Grice has been a staple of both Clemson’s pitching rotation and lineup this season. On Tuesday, he was named a finalist for the John Olerud Award, given to the best two-way player in college baseball.
His efforts helped Clemson win the 2023 ACC Tournament championship and earn the No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers open regional play Friday (1 pm ET, ESPN+) against Nashville-based Lipscomb.
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Grice’s development into a reliable starting pitcher and a premier power hitter has been a revelation. He’s done so after pitching just 16 innings in his first two seasons at Clemson and struggling at the plate as a sophomore.
It makes him rare in college baseball, and it has fueled Clemson’s turnaround from losing five of its first seven series to winning its last seven. This summer, it could lead him to a promising future as a professional prospect.
Those who have seen Grice throughout his baseball career all say something similar: Grice has a “God-given ability” on the diamond. He’s 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds. He’s a left-handed pitcher and has natural pop at the plate, giving him the trappings of a physically ideal two-way prospect.
“I think all of us as coaches,” Clemson coach Erik Bakich said, “if we were going to draw a baseball player up, we’d draw something like him.”
At the plate: From star to slump and back
A cluster of spindly pine trees stand against the center field wall at Riverside High School’s baseball park in Greer. They lord over the field where Grice became the Gatorade Player of the Year in South Carolina as a senior in 2020.
During that season, Grice worked out for professional scouts and opted to show off his swing with a wooden bat. Brad remembers Grice hitting balls to the center field wall, 400 feet away and well over those towering pines. He’d known his son was good — after all, pro scouts were watching — but that display of power stands out three years later.
When Grice was recruited by colleges as a high school freshman, though, it was mostly as a pitcher.
“I think that made him mad,” Brad said. “He was like, ‘No, I’m a baseball player.’ He just wanted to prove to everybody he could hit.”
Grice began working more on his hitting and continued to impress scouts with tree-clearing moon shots coming off a wooden barrel.
By the time he got to Clemson and then-coach Monte Lee in 2021, he was mostly hitting and playing first base. He was named a freshman All-American after hitting .317 with 15 home runs and a .618 slugging percentage. But he slumped in 2022, batting .244 and striking out 97 times in 225 plate appearances.
It’s hard to say why Grice’s offense declined. The team was under pressure to save Lee’s job. Plus, Grice had moved into the outfield rather than his usual first base. For an anxious, busy kid like Grice, the outfield provides a little too much alone time to overthink.
Enter Bakich, who brought a new level of discipline and structure to Clemson. As the son of a law enforcement officer, Grice thrives in an organized environment. The combination of that and a move back to first freed his mind.
But what’s helped Grice’s offense most has been his emergence as a pitcher.
“The more he’s done both, the more it’s decluttered his mind,” Bakich said. “He doesn’t have to overthink one area. … He’s now playing with a smile on his face again, and that’s great to see.”
On the mound: A sudden surge as a starter
It’s not uncommon for a college baseball player to hit and serve as a relief pitcher. What Grice is doing – starting every weekend and hitting cleanup every day – is rare. Even more so considering he had only made three pitching starts before this year.
“It’s not easy to do,” Bakich said. “Starting pitchers have a seven-day throwing program. He’s constantly managing, making sure he’s taking care of his body, taking care of his arm, getting a bullpen in once a week while still doing all the swinging that he needs to do.”
When Bakich asked Grice about increasing his pitching load, Grice was “all in,” although it wasn’t immediately clear what role he would fill. Bakich wanted him to start, but he would have to build his pitch count throughout the season.
Grice’s first quality start came April 8 against Florida State, when he threw 6⅓ innings with five hits, two earned runs and five strikeouts. He also hit a grand slam in the win. His emergence coincided with Clemson’s rise: The series win over the Seminoles was the first in the Tigers’ seven-series streak.
He hasn’t gone less than 4⅓ innings in any start since. He threw a career-high eight innings in a win over Boston College, and he had a career-high 11 strikeouts in 6⅓ against Louisville. As he’s built up his workload, Grice has become Clemson’s most reliable starter. He leads the rotation in ERA (3.25), opponent batting average (.195) and has an 8-1 record.
“To not pitch that much for that long, and then all of a sudden jump back into it and be as dominant as he is right now: Is it normally surprising in the game of baseball? Yes,” Riverside coach Michael Pettit said of his former star. “But knowing Caden, it’s not.”
A ‘confusing’ draft prospect
As a junior, Grice is eligible for the 2023 MLB Draft. But is he a hitting prospect or a pitching prospect? Could he do both? The answer depends on what team drafts him.
Tom Holliday coached Grice in the Cape Cod League for two summers with the Chatham Anglers. The nearly 50-year coaching veteran thinks Grice will be a “superstar” – but whether as a hitter or pitcher, he’s not sure.
He said scouts seem split on which position is best for Grice. He has tremendous upside as a hitter, thanks to his natural power, but his high strikeout rate – currently about 38% for his career – is a concern.
Perhaps he’d have more consistent success as a pitcher. His fastball is in the low to mid-90s, and scouting services like his off-speed pitches, particularly his curveball. Holliday has seen players with that profile go on to major league careers.
“He’s turned himself into a very confusing draft choice,” Holliday said. “(But) Caden Grice is not a secret to anybody in the United States. … Now, what he’s gonna do? We’ll have to wait and see.”
Christina Long covers the Clemson Tigers for the Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. You can follow her on Twitter @christinalong00 or email her at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Two-way Clemson baseball star Caden Grice isn’t average MLB prospect