Tuesday was day Caden Vire has dreamed about for a long time, and yet it caught him a little bit by surprise.
The recent Skyview High School graduate was selected in the 12th round of the MLB first-year player draft by the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday morning.
“I kind of thought I might get drafted in the 11th round,” Vire said Tuesday. “But when that didn’t happen, I thought maybe it wasn’t going to happen at all. But when I got picked in the 12th round, my family and I we all just kind of gasped. And for it to be the Brewers was a surprise because I hadn’t talked with them in a while.”
Vire was the 357th player taken in the 20-round draft and the first high school player from Washington to be selected. Vire said two teams that he had the most conversations with recently were the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves.
“Honestly, I can’t remember when the last time I talked with the Brewers,” he said. “But I’m excited. It’s a pretty exciting day. I don’t think it’s totally hit me that I’ve been drafted. It’s something that I’ve dreamed about for a long time.”
The 6-foot-6, 170-pound left-handed pitcher signed to play college baseball with Arizona State last November. Now, he has a big decision to make.
“I have two really good options right now,” Vire said. “I’m going to sit down with my family, talk with the Brewers and then try to decide what’s the best option for me.”
Vire was The Columbian’s All-Region baseball player of the year in 2021 after going 4-0 with a 0.56 ERA and 74 strikeouts in 37.1 innings for Skyview during the Storm’s 17-0 season. He was the 4A Greater St. Helens League pitcher of the year.
Since the end of the high school season, Vire has been working out in the weight room to get stronger. It’s been part of a workout regimen that he got really serious about during the pandemic, when he added 20 pounds to his frame and 10 miles per hour to his fastball, which now is clocked in the 90s.
“This is 100 percent validation for all the work I’ve put in,” Vire said. “And I feel like I’m nowhere near the end.”
Skyview baseball coach Seth Johnson called Vire’s improvement over the past two years “extraordinary.”
“And it hasn’t just been on the mound,” Johnson said earlier this spring. “Athletically, he’s just made huge jumps. Even like his 60-yard dash, he lowered it a full second. … He has a bright, bright future. He has a really high ceiling. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing at the highest level one day.”
Vire is the highest draft pick of a Clark County high school player since King’s Way Christian’s Damon Casetta-Stubbs was taken in the 11th round of the 2018 draft by the Seattle Mariners. Casetta-Stubbs signed to play college ball with Seattle University, but opted to sign with the Mariners instead. He was traded last week to the Cleveland Indians organization.
