TAMPA — Cade Winquest is where he thought he would be, just a few years delayed.
Standing inside the home clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field on Thursday morning, Winquest flashed back to July of 2022, 30 minutes before the start of the MLB draft, when he had a Zoom meeting with the Yankees.
“They kind of told me, ‘Hey, we want you to be a Yankee by the end of the day,’” Winquest said. “It just so happened that the Cardinals had [three] picks before them and they ended up taking me before. But I was under the impression I was going to be a Yankee that day.”
The Yankees drafted a college right-hander named Cam Schlittler with their seventh-round pick, then thought they might have a chance to nab Winquest in the eighth round with the 250th-overall pick before the Cardinals scooped him up at No. 247.