When he didn’t sign with the Tampa Bay Rays, despite being chosen in the second round of the 2024 MLB draft, Lincoln-Way East’s Tyler Bell surprised many people around baseball.
Bell graduated from high school and instead played in college for Kentucky, becoming the highest-selected player from that draft class not to sign. Two years later, that gamble paid off.
“It turned out to be a really good thing for me because I didn’t sell myself short and I bet on myself,” Bell said in a press conference. “I knew what I was truly worth as a person and a player.”
The Colorado Rockies took Bell in Saturday’s first round with the 10th overall pick. A shortstop, he turned 21 in June, making him eligible for the 2026 MLB draft after just two seasons in college.
While Bell confirmed it was a financial decision not to sign with the Rays the last time around, he pointed out it went deeper than that.
“It was a money thing at the end of the day,” he said. “But I felt like that dollar figure was how much it kind of represented who I was as a person and a player but also how much they wanted to pour into me from their organizational side.”
Now, Bell feels he has found an organization committed to his success.
“It’s unreal to be that first-round selection and have a team truly value you,” he said. “The Rockies were the best fit for me, the best meeting I had at the combine, the truest connections.”
Matt Hudik, Bell’s former teammate at Lincoln-Way East who is now playing at Illinois Wesleyan, was happy to see Bell end up in a great spot.
“He potentially took a gamble on himself and it all worked out,” Hudik said. “It’s really cool to see that happen for someone like Tyler. He put in an absolutely crazy amount of work.
“He deserves every second of this.”
Lincoln-Way East coach John McCarthy will definitely back up that opinion on Bell’s work ethic.
“I still remember coming back to the field after a game and seeing Tyler and his mother, and Tyler was hitting off one of our pitching machines with his mother loading the balls,” McCarthy said. “It was just another level of dedication that not only inspired our group but inspired me personally.”
McCarthy has a unique perspective when it comes to Bell. McCarthy coached against him at Homewood-Flossmoor before taking over at Lincoln-Way East coach for Bell’s senior season.
“Coaching against him, his defense was off the charts,” McCarthy said. “If you hit a ball to shortstop, you knew it was an out. Then he’d always come up with big hits against us, time and again.
“Then when I got to coach him, what stood out was his ability to galvanize a group. You knew at the end of the day that you had such a talented, dedicated player who was going to make everyone around him better.”
Bell suffered a shoulder injury in Kentucky’s first game this spring but returned a few weeks later and postponed surgery until after the season, hitting .343 with 49 runs, nine homers and 29 RBIs.
Now, he’s following in the footsteps of 2019 Lincoln-Way East graduate Ryan Ritter, whom the Rockies also drafted out of Kentucky in 2022.
Ritter made his big-league debut last season and has played 66 games with the Rockies over the last two years.
“Apparently, all of us Lincoln-Way East guys are going to have to become Rockies fans,” Hudik said.
For Bell, it feels somewhat preordained. At least on a video-game level.
“It’s funny,” he said. “I play a lot of MLB The Show and I play every single game at Coors Field at home, so maybe I knew something. I don’t know.”
