Ryan Waldschmidt was off to a scorching start in the Cape Cod League last summer. He had put in a solid sophomore season for Kentucky after transferring from Charleston Southern and was out to prove that his introduction to the SEC was no joke when he opened 5-for-10 with a homer for Cotuit. In the first inning of his fourth game on June 28, Brewster’s Dylan Leach hit a ball his way in left field, and like many times before, Waldschmidt geared up to throw the ball home for a play at the plate.

Until his foot hit a divot in the grass, and his left leg was filled with searing pain.

“The first thing I asked was if my leg was pointing the right way because I was hoping it wasn’t,” he said. “I was hoping it snapped in half. That would have been a much better outcome. But when they said, ‘Yeah, it’s good,’ I thought it’s probably my ACL then.”

The diagnosis was a torn ACL, an injury that robbed Waldschmidt of his summer and much of his offseason on-field prep. And yet one year later, the 21-year-old outfielder is ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 23 Draft prospect and is preparing to go in the first round of this year’s process on July 14.

Waldschmidt hit .333/.469/.610 with career highs in homers (14) and steals (25) over his 59-game junior season with Kentucky, leading the program to its first-ever appearance at the College World Series in Omaha and earning second-team All-SEC honors in the most loaded conference in the country along the way.

It was certainly a progression to get the right-handed slugger back on the diamond in the first place.

The original injury led to an estimated eight-month absence, and Waldschmidt wasn’t cleared to get in the box in the fall, except to bunt. So that’s what he did, sometimes laying down 100 bunts in a single practice just to get any work in. He was also given TrackMan duties during intrasquad games, and that forced him into a different viewpoint on pitchers.

“I learned tendencies, certain movements, the planes of balls, arm slots,” he said. “Guys who have lower arm slots are more horizontal. So I see a guy warming up [with that arm slot], I’ll know he’s mostly going left to right and isn’t super up-down. If you have a guy throwing straight over the top, he’s more of an up-down guy. Ride, run, all that stuff – I got a different perspective on it.”

Come the start of the season in February, the Wildcats slowly worked Waldschmidt back into the fold with single pinch-hit at-bats in his first three games and got him a full-fledged start on Feb. 24 against Texas State. Perhaps after all that TrackMan studying, it shouldn’t be surprising that Waldschmidt reached four times in five plate appearances, twice on walks. He also went 1-for-2 in stolen-base attempts – one of the biggest tests yet of his knee.

“When you get back out there again, you have that thought in the back of your mind,” he said. “What happens if it happens again? You may not be going as 100 percent. But I think once I realized that they weren’t going to clear me if they thought I was going to get hurt again, I had that belief that I’d be fine. … I think I’m as fast as I was before, if not faster based on off the different exercises I was able to do.”

After 11 games at DH, Waldschmidt’s first game back in left field came on March 8 against Kennesaw State, and as he tells the story, his first fielded play at the grass required another throw home for a close play. He didn’t get the runner out, but he did come away unscathed.

“It’s funny how the game always comes back to you,” he said.

The Florida native continued to gain steam as the season wore along, and his trained eye at the plate caught the attention of pro evaluators. Waldschmidt continued to be especially good at keeping his chase rate in check, and that allowed his power performance to balloon in his second season in Lexington. His homer output jumped from five in 2023 to 14 this spring, while his slugging percentage moved from .445 to .610. Perhaps even more notably for a player coming off a major knee injury, he was the only player in the conference to finish with an OPS above 1.000 and steal more than 15 bags. He stole 25.

The farther he got from the divot in the grass, the more his speed – and overall profile picked – up steam.

“It’s just a mental block that takes a little bit of time,” Waldschmidt said. “I think as a few weeks went on and I got comfortable again being out there, it slowly started fading away, and now I’m fully confident again.”

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His running ability has gotten to the point where some clubs have talked to Waldschmidt about center field, where his 55-grade wheels could be a better fit. Some still see him in the corner, especially because of below-average arm strength, but a club that considers Waldschmidt in the first round might want to see how he looks at the more valuable position.

Then again for a player who was wishing for a clean broken leg a year ago over the alternative he got, he still has to pinch himself that he’s in this position at all.

“If I was healthy, I would have probably believed you, but not being healthy around [the start of the year], I would have told you that you’re crazy,” Waldschmidt said. “I really took nothing for granted. There are times when you’re fully healthy, up by 12 runs, getting an at-bat in the ninth inning, and you’ll be checked out. But for me, I loved being able to play again, so I took it as if it was the game-winning at-bat. I think it really changed my mindset when it comes to playing again.”