Many Cincinnati Reds fans who remember that Chad Mottola was the team’s first-round pick – fifth overall – in 1992 recall that fact because of the player selected one pick later by the New York Yankees: Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
In the first episode of “The Captain” – which debuted Monday night on ESPN after the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby – a young Jeter explained that he was told in advance of the ’92 draft that he would be selected first overall by the Houston Astros or fifth by the Reds.
“At the outset of that draft, there wasn’t a lot of hope in their eyes that (Jeter) was going to fall to them,” ESPN’s Buster Olney said in the first few minutes of the documentary.
“(Reds scout) Gene Bennett had scouted that area,” Joel Sherman added. “He sees Jeter. He’s like, ‘This is perfect. This is Barry Larkin II.’ Gene Bennett believes to the day of the draft they’re going to take (Jeter). At the same exact time (that the Reds instead draft Mottola), the Yankee draft room explodes in cheers.”
Mottola, the Tampa Bay Rays’ hitting coach since 2016, hit .215 in 85 plate appearances for the Reds in 1996. He had a total of 52 plate appearances over four seasons the rest of his big-league career.
Bennett, who was with the Reds’ organization for more than 60 years as a scout and executive, died in 2017 at age 89.
Jeter was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 2021.
ESPN’s seven-part documentary on Jeter airs on Thursdays through Aug. 11.
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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Derek Jeter, Yankees didn’t expect Reds to draft Chad Mottola in 1992