CHICAGO – Kyle Farmer was a four-year starter at the University of Georgia and he set school fielding records at shortstop.
It still took him five years before he received another opportunity at the position. He was drafted as a catcher by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the eighth round of the 2013 MLB Draft, a position he never played.
It wasn’t just the Dodgers, either. All teams wanted to move him to catcher after his senior season at Georgia.
“Every single team wanted me to catch, Farmer said. “After our season was done at Georgia, I went back home to wait on the draft. (Teams) wanted me to come out and workout with them, the Dodgers, a bunch of the other teams, and I had to go back to Georgia, steal catcher’s gear, and come back and wear catcher’s gear for the first time for a tryout.”
Nobody is questioning whether Farmer can play shortstop anymore. He’s been above-average defensively all year and now he’s beginning to break out at the plate.
Farmer, playing with a sports hernia injury, has a .394 batting average and .463 on-base percentage in 20 games this month. He had 10 hits in 16 at-bats during the four-game series against the Chicago Cubs this week.
