‘It just doesn’t seem real.’ Former Merced County star drafted by Major League club

Andrew Mitchel has dreamed of him playing Major League Baseball many times. The dreams seem real until he wakes up and realizes he’s still in college at San Jose State.

That’s how he felt on Tuesday morning, the day after the San Diego Padres drafted him in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball draft.

He wasn’t sure it was real.

“I woke up this morning and I honestly thought it was a dream,” Mitchel said. “Because I’ve had that dream hundreds of times. I’m dreaming I’m playing pro ball. It wasn’t until I flipped my phone over and saw I had like 400 text messages.

“That’s when I was like, this is real.”

Mitchel, 22, says he was almost in a state of shock when he saw his name come across the draft tracker on Tuesday. He had received calls during the third round that teams were looking to take him.

“From the third to the eighth rounds, I’m just watching names go by, hoping my name pops up,” Mitchel said. “Right when I had lost hope, and I’m thinking tomorrow is a new day, I saw my name pop up. I was speechless.

“That’s 20 years of work put in a one moment.”

Mitchel graduated from Buhach Colony High in 2015. He went on to play baseball and Fresno City, Grossmont College and then San Jose State the last two years.

Thunder coach Greg Wakefield congratulated Mitchel with a text message on Tuesday.

“I had been talking to Coach Wakefield all day,” Mitchel said. “He sent me a text that said, ‘Whatever small part BC had in this....I’m a very proud coach right now. That meant a lot to me. Coach (Wayne) Fitzgerald called me too and I could hear his voice cracking on the phone.”

Mitchel also heard from former Buhach Colony star Daulton Jefferies, who is in Double-A for the Oakland A’s.

“Daulton was the first person I FaceTimed,” Mitchel said. “He’s been like my big brother ever since high school. He didn’t answer when I called, but he called me back when I was walking to the mall with my family to buy Padres hats. Daulton just had the biggest smile on his face.”

The Spartans senior was 4-5 with a 4.57 ERA this season. He led the Mountain West Conference with 112 strikeouts.

Mitchel thought he had a good shot to be drafted after he was named the Co-MWC Pitcher of the Year last year. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound left-hander posted a 6-2 record to go along with a 3.72 ERA.

Mitchel said watching the draft last year was horrible.

“I was in St. Cloud, Minnesota for summer ball,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going to go on the first two days of the draft. On the third day, I was supposed to pitch, but I couldn’t even warm up before the game. My stomach was upside down watching the draft. My brain was all over the place.

“Once the draft was over and I wasn’t picked, it sucked. It was brutal. Talking to people, they said people didn’t know who I was until right before the draft. I came out of nowhere and they wanted to see consistency.”

It worked out for Mitchel, who will fly to Arizona on Sunday and sign his contract Monday.

“It’s been a dream of mine, getting drafted and it finally happened when I’m 22 years old,” Mitchel said. “It just doesn’t seem real.”