How Clemson’s Caden Grice plans to approach encore season to All-American debut
Two of the biggest questions surrounding Caden Grice are whether or not he’ll pitch again and what the freshman All-American will look like in his second year with Clemson.
He was able to answer at least one of those questions after careful consideration. About a month ago, Grice decided to stick with playing infield and hitting, giving up pitching for the time being.
“I think the nature of Caden’s injuries were because he was doing both and just the toll that it took on his body,” Tigers coach Monte Lee said of Grice’s hand and back injuries during the summer and fall, respectively. “He’s super tall, and a lot of moving parts. When you’re trying to hit and pitch and do both, it just takes a toll on your body. It’s very rare that you see a guy that does both and does both at a high level, like a high, high level.”
Health played a primary role in Grice’s decision. While neither the back nor hand injury was serious, the latter did prevent him from getting some work in during the fall while also giving him cause for pause.
“Some of the research looking into it, based on the nature of the injury that he had, if he continues to do this, his rate of injury’s going to go through the roof,” Lee explained. “It’s going to be fairly high that he can hurt himself again if he continues to do both. Just put a lot of stress on his body.”
Aside from health, Grice sticking with hitting and fielding allows his attention to be more focused on one thing. There were times last season when he wasn’t able to get in the batting cages or work on groundballs because he’d be in the bullpen. He hasn’t completely ruled out taking the mound, but he won’t make it a priority.
With all of his attention on hitting and fielding, Grice can work on answering the second question.
The one area he’s worked on the most is his defense. The Greer native spent the summer playing for the Chatham Anglers in Massachusetts, the youngest on the team, as part of the Cape Cod League. It’s the premier collegiate summer baseball league in the nation, with alumni like Todd Frazier, Evan Longoria, Chris Young and Alex Presley.
“I feel like, defensively, it was night and day,” Grice said of his growth with the Anglers. “The fields aren’t as nice as here when you go up to summer ball, so I think playing on those tough fields and surfaces, it definitely helped me out a lot.”
He also played for the 2021 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team during the summer, joining Brad Miller (2009, ‘10), Chris Okey (2014, ‘15), Seth Beer (2016, ‘17) and Ryley Gilliam (2017) as more recent Clemson players to do so.
For as good of a season as Grice had as a freshman — he led the team in runs scored (40), home runs (15) and RBIs (53) with the highest slugging (.618) and on-base (.427) percentages — he’s still a young player who is learning.
“I gotta take a step back sometimes,” he admitted. “I don’t need to do it all on my own because I have such a talented team. They’re all here, they have my back, so honestly just staying calm and composed in certain situations.”
Sophomore pitcher Mack Anglin saw his teammate take a step in his growth during the fall when Grice couldn’t play. He found another way to contribute to the team while he was out.
“One of the toughest things in the game is when you have to kind of sit and watch,” Anglin said. “But each day he brought so much energy, so I’m really proud of Caden.”
Grice says he’s 100% healthy and ready to roll heading into the season opener against Indiana, a weekend home series that begins on Feb. 18. Ending his freshman year as an All-American, he begins his sophomore campaign with D1Baseball naming him to its preseason second-team All-America team as the utility player as well as its preseason third-team All-American as the first baseman.
All of the accolades are great, but Lee knows the pressure that comes with them. Instead of worrying about the attention he’ll get from other teams, Lee wants Grice to stay who he is and not let the pressure of what he’s expected to be get the best of him.
“I don’t think I’ll necessarily just stick him in the 3 hole,” Lee said. “So that’s the thing is, we’ve got to put good people around him to protect him so they have to pitch to him more, but also, he just has to be himself.
“We expect big things out of Caden, but the main thing is not trying to make too much of Caden. Just let Caden be Caden, be like just a normal member of the team like everybody else and take some of that pressure off his shoulders. I don’t want to put the bullseye on him, too, if that makes sense, because that’s going to happen when we play Indiana.”
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 9:46 AM with the headline "How Clemson’s Caden Grice plans to approach encore season to All-American debut."
