From Quebec to Kentucky: 'Self-made' Rays pick's road to Draft

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Growing up in Repentigny, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal, Émilien Pitre admitted he was “kind of the outlier.”He never played hockey.

Pitre’s first word was “ball,” his parents tell him. He preferred soccer and baseball to hockey. Nobody in his family played baseball, but he relished the challenge. He loved hitting. He wanted to follow his dream of playing professionally.

That dream became a reality on Sunday night, when the Rays selected the Canadian second baseman with the 58th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. Pitre’s unusual path has already taken him from Quebec to the University of Kentucky, and he hopes it will one day lead him to the Rays.

“The Rays are an awesome organization,” he said Monday afternoon, “so I’m super happy to be part of it.”

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The Rays were similarly thrilled to land Pitre (whose name is pronounced AH-meel-ee-in PEE-tree), who was ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 173 Draft prospect. Amateur scouting director Chuck Ricci praised the 21-year-old for his contact skills at the plate, emerging power, baserunning and infield defense, believing he “fits the mold of the complete player” the Rays desire.

“Very self-made player,” Ricci said.

An unlikely one, too.

Pitre played with a travel ball team when he was 15 or 16 years old, his first time taking the field in the United States after only playing two or three months out of the year at home -- "Obviously,” he added, “because it’s super cold up here.”

Pitre starred on Canadian provincial teams and played for the National Junior Team, establishing himself as Quebec’s best position player prospect in 2021. But he was undersized, missed out on some key opportunities due to the pandemic and was clearly not ready for the next level.

“Being 130 pounds in high school,” he said, “it kind of makes it hard to grab the attention of schools.”

There was another issue: Pitre didn’t speak a lot of English. French is his first language, and his high school was a French-speaking school. The recruiting process made him realize he needed to learn English, which he started doing five or six years ago.

During the pandemic, Pitre moved to Ontario to train and work out at an open facility -- and learn to speak English. George Halim, the Prep Baseball Report Canada scouting director, set him up with a host family, the Arnolds, for about nine months. The Arnolds’ son, Bryce, wound up playing at Campbell University and is now an infielder in the Blue Jays’ Minor League system.

Pitre is now fluent in English, but there was another adjustment ahead of him: moving from Canada to Lexington, Ky.

Pitre was lightly recruited as a teenager, but he still drew interest from four or five schools. Kentucky was the first program that came calling, and he signed up, sight unseen, having never visited the campus.

He also said he “had no idea what college sports was in the United States” at the time, certainly not understanding the impact and intensity of the Southeastern Conference, but he appreciated that the Wildcats believed in him from the beginning.

“I was just going there hoping for the best, and it was the best. I’m glad I made that decision,” he said. “The past three years have been the best three years of my life.”

Pitre only had four at-bats in 11 games as a freshman in 2022, but he spent every day eating and lifting weights to get bigger, faster and stronger. He found success in the Cal Ripken Collegiate League that summer (.973 OPS in 34 games), realizing all his hard work was paying off.

Pitre played a full season as a sophomore in 2023, slashing .318/.440/.413 with 51 RBIs and 20 steals in 61 games -- but with just one home run. He started to think his dream was within reach, if only he could find a little more power. So he put on more muscle and tweaked his swing, keeping his approach and speed intact, and he slashed .301/.420/.519 with 10 homers, 58 RBIs and 26 steals in 62 games as a junior this spring.

“I think he showed up at Kentucky and probably wasn’t ready to play at that level and just worked really hard at his English, at his body, at his game,” Ricci said. “Where he’s come in that amount of time, it’s impressive. … He really made the most of an opportunity.”

On Saturday, Pitre's father picked him up from Lexington, and they made the 14-hour drive home to Quebec in one day. They were ready for the Draft and together when Pitre received the call he’d been waiting for his whole life.

“It feels amazing,” he said. “It’s been a dream since I started playing baseball. Being able to feel this moment with my family is awesome.”