Ryan Ritter committed to improving at Kentucky as MLB draft looms
In the midst of a meteoric rise, Kentucky Baseball’s star shortstop Ryan Ritter is still learning how to juggle the pressure and competition of SEC baseball as his professional career could be just a few months away.
The 21-year-old from Chicago has had a unique journey to becoming a potential top-round pick in this upcoming MLB draft. We’ve seen his name all over draft boards and prospect lists for a few years now, but Ritter wasn’t always being sought after so highly.
Well, at least not as much since jumping to college. After high school, Ritter was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 33rd round of the MLB draft in 2019. Only a minuscule amount of the population even get to say they were drafted by a MLB club — I can’t even begin to imagine the percentage that get drafted by a hometown team. Though the idea of playing professional has always been the plan, it just wasn’t the right time yet for the future All-American shortstop.
“I was talking to a couple of teams prior to the draft and I just so happened to be drafted by the Cubs. I just thought there was more for me to do,” Ritter told KSR. “I just hadn’t been seen enough and I felt like the best thing for my career was to play college baseball and do what I do at that level. I played it in high school and I’m an under-the-radar type of guy. I was trying to do this, do what I do at the national level. That’s why I wanted to come to college and prove that I can do it at the highest level.”
Ritter originally committed to Austin Peay over the likes of Valparaiso and Southern Illinois with the intention of playing both baseball and football. He soon realized that wasn’t the path he truly wanted to live out.
“My buddy was going to a school in Florida, a JUCO, so he kind of introduced me to JUCO and I was like you know what, that sounds like a good idea but I don’t know if I can make that decision. And then I was like, you know what, I feel like that’s what I want to do. Have a fresh start and go that route.” Ritter said. “It was a tough decision, it was tough for my family because we literally didn’t know what we were getting into. I’m really happy about my decision though, I think it’s the best decision I’ve made for my career.”
Ritter exploded in his one year at John A. Logan College in Illinois during the shortened 2020 season. Even though he was finally getting recognized nationally, topping out as the best JUCO shortstop transfer in the country, he still wasn’t taking the idea of playing high-level baseball too seriously.
“Before my first game I started hearing from a couple schools and I kind of laughed it off like ‘ha ha SEC schools I’ve never really thought about that before.’ But then I started playing a couple games and then a lot more schools were getting interested in me and I was like ‘okay this is actually real, this is something I could actually do.'” Ritter said. “Kentucky was one school that was on me a lot. I got out here probably midseason in the fall and made the decision to come here. It wasn’t too far from home, SEC baseball, beautiful facilities. You couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Ritter showed up on campus towards the latter half of 2020 and has been as advertised ever since. Arguably the best defensive shortstop in college baseball, he’s continuously made jaw-dropping plays on the field during his time in Lexington.
At the plate, we’ve seen improvement over the years as he becomes accustomed to SEC-level pitching. The numbers aren’t awe-inspiring with the bat, but the improvements to his slugging and his speed on the base paths still make him an intriguing prospect.
“I’m always going to talk about getting better at defense and offense, I think you could always get better. Definitely just be more disciplined at the plate and kept trying to get comfortable.” Ritter told KSR about what he feels he needs to improve on for this season and the future. “When I get comfortable, stay consistent with that comfortability. Because in this game it’s hard to stay the same every day but the best people that do this are the ones in the big leagues.”
Commitment to a craft is one thing — you can resonate with the idea of working hard at something in hopes of reaching a future goal. Very few of us have what’s lying ahead for Ritter and so many athletes in a few months. Every move and decision they make on the field will be scrutinized and analyzed constantly before getting drafted this summer.
Even with that, Ritter still seems to have blocked out most of that outside noise and he’s completely locked in on trying to make himself and the team better every day while he’s a Wildcat.
“The only thing I think about every day is doing the best I can. I know that I can’t control any of that, that happens. The only thing I can control is what I do to prepare for games, what I do in the games and what I eat, my nutrition and what my body feels like every day that’s all I can control. And like I said, it’s going to work out.”
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