Zach Edey might be the most feared player in men’s college basketball.
The 7-4, 285-pound Purdue center has averaged a double-double in two straight seasons. He won the Naismith and Wooden awards as a junior, and he might wind up doing it again as a senior.
There are still some basketball accomplishments left for Edey. He has powered Purdue to the Final Four, where the Boilermakers will face NC State on Saturday with a national championship berth on the line.
But before Edey was boxing out in the paint, he was painting his spots as a baseball player on the mound at Leaside High in Ontario.
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It’s safe to say Edey made the right call in choosing basketball, as he’s likely ticketed for the NBA after this March Madness run. Yet one can’t help but wonder how his career might have shaped up if Edey had chosen baseball.
Did Zach Edey play baseball?
Edey has tried out many different sports in his career. There’s basketball, of course. But he’s also tried out hockey and soccer.
And it was during a soccer practice that Jeff Wolburgh said he spotted Edey. He immediately sought out Edey’s parents trying to get Edey to try out for Little League baseball, Wolburgh told MLB.com.
When he took the mound, Edey towered over the competition, standing a foot taller than everyone else his age, per MLB.com. And that size helped provide infielders with a large target when he played first base. It also helped him hit the ball with authority, even if Wolburgh recalled to the New York Post it was almost always hit on the ground.
“It was definitely like a safety concern when he played,” former coach Eric Stickney told MLB.com. “You would really worry about the safety of the other team’s pitcher if he was able to get ahold of one and hit a line drive.
“Pitchers should’ve been wearing shin guards or had a hockey helmet on.”
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Once it was an option, Edey made a natural fit on the mound. His velocity was higher than most other pitchers his age, with Wolburgh describing him as “throwing 10, 12 mph faster than every other kid.” His stride meant his release point was significantly closer to the plate, adding a higher perceived velocity. By the time he was 14 years old, he measured around 6-10.
His height always led to plenty of skepticism from other teams. Stickney told the New York Post he often had to take a birth certificate for Edey to prove to opposing teams Edey was not too old for his age level.
“He was literally a giant amongst kids,” Wolburgh told the New York Post.
Why did Zach Edey quit baseball?
When he reached 15 years old, Edey was considered among Canada’s top baseball prospects, throwing in the 80s as a pitcher with plenty of power as a hitter. However, Edey began to play basketball when he was a sophomore in high school and started to learn it was the better fit.
Edey kept growing, and told the New York Post as he got taller, he lost the ability to hit as well as he had when he was younger. He said he “kind of outgrew baseball in a way.” It soon became clear to Edey his future would be better in basketball, even if he still continued playing some baseball as a 17- and 18-year-old for Stickney. When he went to IMG Academy for his junior and senior years, the focus was basketball.
“I was like a blank canvas for people to work on,” Edey told The Athletic in 2019. “And there’s no better place to work on things than IMG.”
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That doesn’t mean his coaches still didn’t see a bright future for him had he stayed in baseball.
“I think he could’ve gone somewhere if he didn’t stop [playing baseball],” Wolburgh told MLB.com. “Definitely D-I college. He was on a pathway for D-I. … I think he was on his way to baseball stardom.”
Zach Edey baseball video
Edey’s baseball career resurfaced during Purdue’s run to the Final Four. Prep Baseball Report Ontario shared a 2017 video of Edey on the mound, listing his fastball at 74-76 mph and his changeup at 68-71 mph.
2020 6’11 RHP Zachry Edey
FB: 74-76
CH: 68-71#FGT2017 pic.twitter.com/y5q3cR9Bwe— Prep Baseball Ontario (@PrepBaseballON) July 5, 2017
Tallest players in MLB history
Edey would have had a long way to go to reach the majors. But had he decided to pursue baseball — and reach the heights his former coaches thought capable of him — it’s possible he could have gone a long way.
Had Edey played MLB baseball, he would have been the tallest player in the league’s history — by a lot. The tallest players in MLB history are Jon Rauch and Sean Hjelle, both 6-11 right-handed pitchers.
Rauch pitched from 2002 to 2013, amassing 556 appearances (11 starts) with 475 strikeouts in 595 innings. He had a 3.90 ERA. In 2022, Hjelle debuted in the majors, tying Rauch as the tallest player to reach the majors. He has made 23 relief appearances for the Giants with a 6.17 ERA in 54 innings. Hjelle opened this season on the injured list.
Rauch and Hjelle are not the tallest players in professional American baseball. That honor belongs to Loek van Mil, a right-handed pitcher from the Netherlands who spent 10 years in the minors, and Ryan Doherty, a right-han dedreliever who played three MiLB seasons. Both stood 7-1, but van Mil topped out at Triple-A, while Doherty reached only High-A.
