Devin Mann was walking around Gatlinburg, Tennessee, a couple weeks ago with his parents and Columbus North baseball coach Ben McDaniel and McDaniel’s wife when he received a text from his agent Jonathan Maurer.
Maurer was passing along the news that there was a high possibility that Mann would be invited to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ major league spring training camp.
“It was kind of funny how it happened,” Mann said. “We were all just walking around. I was with my family and the McDaniels, and I got a text that I was going to the big league camp. I expected that would be the direction that I would be heading, but I had kind of forgotten about it to be honest. Being with Ben, who had coached me in high school, and my parents, it was a really cool experience. It was cool to kind of share that moment with all of them.”
A 2015 North graduate, Mann was picked in the fifth round of the 2018 draft out of Louisville and has spent the past 2 1/2 years in the Dodgers organization. He spent the rest of the 2018 season with the Great Lakes Loons, a Single-A team in Midland, Michigan. He played for Single-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2019, batting .268 with 19 home runs, 63 RBIs, 19 doubles, two triples and 63 runs scored.
Last year, Mann was ticketed to join the Dodgers’ Double-A Tulsa squad and was with the big-league team at spring training before it was shut down because of COVID-19. In July, the Dodgers put him on their 60-man roster, and he worked out at their facilities through the regular season in August and September.
“We played a lot of simulated games out there at USC with our minor league prospects,” Mann said. “About two or three times a week, we would go to Dodger Stadium and take live at-bats against guys that needed work.”
That included Walker Buehler, Joe Kelly, Alex Wood and Pedro Baez — four pitchers who helped the Dodgers win last year’s World Series.
“That was a good experience to hit off those guys,” Mann said. “It was pretty cool. Obviously, I didn’t have great success against Walker Buehler, as you could imagine, but I did pretty well against Joe Kelly, Alex Wood and Pedro Baez. It’s nice to know that you’re that close and know what you need to work on.”
The Dodgers charted stats for their prospects the entire time they were in LA last year, and Mann hit around .300 with 10 home runs in 93 at bats.
“You were around all the big bosses within the Dodgers organization,” Mann said. “You got to hear all the feedback of what they thought and how they view you. It was really nice to have that experience and get you ready for what’s to come.”
After returning home to Columbus in late September, Mann was able to follow the Dodgers’ playoff run every step of the way.
“It was really cool,” Mann said. “You watch a lot of the games. You sit back, and you think, I could be up there soon. This year, it was fun because I got to know some of those guys and had a little bit of a relationship. You had sort of a bond.”
Mann compared that feeling to when he was an eighth-grader getting ready to become a freshman at North.
“When you’re that age, the next step is high school,” Mann said. “You look up to those guys. (Former North standout) Hunter McIntosh sticks out in my mind. Now, you look up to (Dodgers stars) Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger and Clayton Kershaw and all of those guys.”
McIntosh and fellow 2012 North graduate Will Nelson recently opened “HIT Baseball” on the north side of Columbus. Mann has been able to work on his hitting there in the offseason, and has been training at MVP in Columbus.
“It’s really nice that I have a place like MVP with Nathan Frasier that I can work out at,” Mann said. “There’s nothing better than his facility, and it’s nice to have a place to hit.”
Mann played mostly shortstop at North, mostly second base at Louisville and mostly third base so far in his minor league career. He played all of those positions, along with first base, last summer.
Within the next couple of weeks, Mann expects to find out his report date to the Dodgers Spring Training facility in Glendale, Arizona. He figures he’ll begin the season at either Double-A Tulsa or Triple-A Oklahoma City.
“Obviously, the better I do in big league camp, the better assignment I’ll get,” Mann said. “I’ll definitely start in the minor leagues, whether it’s Double-A or Triple-A. Basically, the ball is in my court to have a good year this year, and whatever comes with that, we’ll take it as it comes.”
