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Baseball
Simmons Eager to Resume UVA Career
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CHARLOTTESVILLE – With the 15th pick of the 15th round in last month’s Major League Baseball draft, the Texas Rangers selected the University of Virginia’s Cameron Simmons.
Had Simmons been told a year ago he would be drafted in 2018, that wouldn’t have surprised him. As a UVA sophomore in 2017, after all, he hit .352, with nine home runs and 57 RBI, and made the All-ACC second team.
“I knew that it was a possibility that I could be leaving after three years,” Simmons said recently at Disharoon Park. “That’s obviously the goal, to play professional baseball. It’s been a dream of mine for a long time.”
But Simmons, a 6-3, 195-pound outfielder, missed the 2018 season with a shoulder injury, a setback that influenced his decision to return to UVA for his fourth year.
“I’m thankful for the Rangers for picking me,” Simmons said. “It was awesome, but it just wasn’t the right time for me to leave. I’m just excited to be back and get another opportunity.”
Of the five other Cavaliers drafted last month, three were classmates of Simmons: pitcher Daniel Lynch, outfielder Jake McCarthy and infielder Andy Weber. Each of the three was picked in the first five rounds, and all of them signed pro contracts.
“Everybody’s got to individually make their own decision that they feel is best for them,” Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor said. “In the end, Cam felt like being back here another year would be the best thing for him.
“No matter what he decided, certainly I’d support him. But he obviously just felt like with another year here, his opportunity would be better coming out after another year. I’m glad he’s back.”
He’ll miss Lynch, McCarthy and Weber, Simmons said, “Those guys are my good friends. We’ve been here together for three years. But I’m excited for them and happy for them.”
A history major, Simmons is on track to earn his bachelor’s degree next spring. He’s enrolled in the current session of summer school at the University.
“It’s a positive that I’ll be leaving here with my degree,” Simmons said. “I won’t have to worry about coming back later and finishing it. I’ll already have it.”
Simmons was one of the last players to join the recruiting class that enrolled at UVA in 2015. He didn’t need long to make up his mind.
“This was the place I knew I wanted to come once I got the offer,” Simmons said. “What’s not to like about it? The baseball program has a tradition of success, and then there’s the academics of the school. It was just a great atmosphere here.”
A native of California, Simmons was around 5 when his family moved to Pennsylvania. He grew up in Royersford, a Philadelphia suburb that’s near Valley Forge.
Simmons started 44 games in 2016, the most of any freshman in the program. In the NCAA regional at Davenport Field that year, Simmons went 4 for 12, and he finished the season with a .261 batting average.
“He’s always been aggressive as a hitter, and that’s part of what I really loved about him,” O’Connor said. “You knew that if you gave Cam the at-bats and gave him an opportunity to continue to develop, that he’d get better and better, and his freshman year he kept improving with the more experience he got.
“He’s somebody that from a physical standpoint and a player-development standpoint is going to continue to improve and improve. I don’t know if we’ll find out really how good this guy will be until he’s 26, 27 years old.”
As a sophomore, Simmons hit .374 in ACC play, and “he’s continued to get better and better,” O’Connor said. “I anticipate this year he’s going to have a tremendous year for us, like I thought that he would last year.”
Injuries ravaged the Cavaliers in 2018, when they finished 29-25 and missed the NCAA tournament for the first time in O’Connor’s 15 seasons as head coach. The right-handed Simmons hurt his left shoulder during preseason and underwent surgery in late February. It was his first serious injury.
The loss of Simmons was “a significant blow to our lineup,” O’Connor said. “That’s no disrespect to anybody else. But his sophomore year, he was our leading hitter in the ACC on one of the best offensive ball clubs we’ve ever had. And so going into his junior year, you thought he was going to hit in the middle of the lineup, drive in a bunch of runs and hit some home runs, and he wasn’t available.”
Simmons said: “It’s definitely a little bit frustrating when you can’t get out there, but I was just trying to do as much as I could to help the guys that were on the field, especially the younger guys that needed help or needed any type of advice.”
This summer, he’s been rehabbing at UVA with athletic trainer Brian McGuire and training with strength and conditioning coach Ed Nordenschild. It typically takes six to eight months to fully recover from his operation, Simmons said, “so I’m almost there. I’m getting close.”
Simmons said he “can throw and do everything out in the field. I just recently started a swinging program, so I’m getting back to what’s normal.”
In each of his first two seasons, when the Cavaliers’ No. 1 center-fielder was Adam Haseley, Simmons started in right field. He’s likely to have a new position in 2019.
This fall, O’Connor said, he’s planning to give Simmons “every opportunity to win the center-field job. Cam’s got really, really good speed. He can run, and think he’s a very good outfielder. He just hasn’t had the opportunity to play center field here, because of Adam Haseley and Jake McCarthy.”
Haseley was the eighth overall pick of the 2017 MLB draft, and McCarthy was taken 39th overall this year.
The soft-spoken Simmons, who lives with teammates Evan Sperling and Riley Wilson, may not be the most talkative player on the Wahoos’ roster, but he’s “going to be able to lead by example because of the experience he has, and he’s always done it the right way,” O’Connor said. “He’s a great young man. He’s a great representative of our program.
“Certainly the example that he sets will be really good for our new players and our young players. That said, I think that there’s continued growth and maturity by players. It wouldn’t surprise me at all that he becomes a little bit more of a vocal leader as well, but we’ll have to see how that plays out.”
During the O’Connor era, it’s become common for the UVA players to be selected in the top 10 rounds of the MLB draft. With a strong 2019 season, Simmons knows, he could add his name to that list.
“Hopefully,” he said. “That’s the plan. I’ve just got to go out there and perform and show everybody I’m the same player I was before I got hurt.”