'Baseball nerd' Charles Davalan looking forward to long career in MLB

This story originally ran previously, before Charles Davalan was drafted with the No. 41 pick by the Dodgers.

It may seem like baseball players continue to grow bigger and larger, more of the league resembling athletic monsters like Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani every season. While scouts and front offices salivate over the enormous frames that can pack on pounds of muscle, adding extra oomph to fastballs and line drives, there is still room in the sport for those who resemble the average person you might see walking down the street, as stars like Francisco Lindor, José Ramírez and Corbin Carroll display.

For those who love a short king, there's one name you'll want to keep an eye on: Arkansas outfielder Charles Davalan. Standing 5-foot-9 and armed with a smooth, left-handed stroke that plays gap-to-gap and over the wall, he's hoping to provide a baseball rat attitude and some unexpected power to whichever team selects him at next week's amateur Draft.

"This might be funny, but as a kind of short, stocky player that plays the game fast, swings the bat hard and can get on-base and still produce some power, I feel right now that Corbin Carroll is a good comp," Davalan told MLB.com recently. "Of course, he's way better than me and may be way better than me in the future, but I just love how he plays. Like I said, swings a bat fast, runs fast, and he plays hard."

That all-out-effort attitude has elevated Davalan to MLB Pipeline's No. 54 Draft ranking. The scouting report suggests that his quality approach and surprising pop should lead to 15-20 home runs a year at the big league level.

It's not just Davalan's size that marks him as an outsider among the top MLB Draft prospects. The lefty outfielder is originally from Waterloo, Ontario before growing up in Montreal, Quebec, an area famed more for hockey than baseball.

"All of my friends were hockey players," Davalan said with a shy smile. "It was mostly hockey growing up. Not really much baseball."

But Davalan fell in love with the game and so stuck with it, despite most of his friends hitting the ice. He rooted for the Blue Jays -- "It's the only team that we get to cheer on as Canadians," he explained -- with Ryan Goins standing out as his favorite player.

"I was a lefty second baseman and he was really good with the glove. Back then, I was kind of a defense-first player. I loved his game and I loved his time with the Blue Jays," Davalan said.

As he was reaching the end of his high school career and was looking at his future options, his family made the difficult decision: They packed up their gear and moved down to Florida to help the self-described "baseball nerd" give the game his very best shot.

"I would just say that back home, we kind of play for fun," Davalan said. "It gets competitive and all that, but the talent is so much better in America. The sport is definitely growing back home, but you don't get reps on-field for 12 months. When I went to Florida, I was an infielder back then and they took ground balls 24/7."

The plan worked and scouts took notice of the young ballplayer. He then headed to Florida Gulf Coast University for college and all he did was hit, posting a .927 OPS as a freshman. After the season, he hopped on social media, sharing his clips and highlights with coaches at bigger programs. It attracted the attention of the University of Arkansas, where Davalan improved all of his numbers despite facing more difficult SEC competition: He hit .346, posted a .994 OPS, and knocked out 14 home runs, helping lead the Razorbacks to the College World Series semifinals.

He credits his growth from glove-first middle infielder to the Razorbacks' do-it-all leadoff hitter to a combination of hard work and a deep love of the sport, both on the field and in the spreadsheets.

"It was just learning more about the analytics side of the game. I'm a baseball nerd and I grew up watching a lot of baseball, just imitating what the big leaguers do," Davalan said. "They're in the big leagues for a reason. There's a lot of snow back home, so you've got to be hitting the cage and putting in some extra work."

In that way, he's a true modern hitter, combining the latest work being done on the statistical side with gritty play on the field.

"Learning my swing and adding some analytics, while still playing the game the right way, hard-nosed, the old school way. I think that's a good mix and that's where my success is," Davalan said.

While Davalan may have grown up a Blue Jays fan, he's excited for whichever team calls his name at the Draft. It means he gets to keep spending all of his time playing baseball, something he's been dreaming of since he was a youngster back in Montreal.

"It would mean the world to my family," Davalan said. "I'm just trying to be present. For me, it's just another opportunity to keep playing the game. That's what I want to do. I want to have a long career and just have fun. I love the game. And if my career is cut short, I'll be a coach or a scout. I'm going to stay in the game for sure."