Cade McGee’s baseball odyssey has included playing in the USA Baseball national team identification series while at Salpointe, leading the Lancers to the 2019 state championship, having a junior season cut short because of COVID-19 in 2020 and using a productive 2021 senior season to land a scholarship at Gonzaga.
After earning the WCC Freshman of the Year and Baseball America Freshman All-American honors in 2022 and excelling with the Bulldogs in 2023, McGee transferred to Texas Tech before last school year.
His season with the Red Raiders included batting .282 with 11 doubles, 15 home runs and 55 RBIs.
With the 261st pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select 3B Cade McGee!#ForTheLou pic.twitter.com/JoYMNd6IX5
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) July 15, 2024
The St. Louis Cardinals used the 261st overall pick (ninth-round selection) to get the 6-foot-1, 195-pound native of Tucson. The pick comes with a slot value of $198,000.
“I’m very excited to start this new journey and very thankful for the opportunity,” McGee stated to AllSportsTucson.com. “I have been dreaming of this day for my entire life and I’m excited to start getting to work. I think there’s been a lot of hard work put into this and it is just the start of a new beginning.
“I’m very thankful for the opportunity and can’t wait to get out and compete for such a great organization. Can’t thank enough people in Tucson and especially the Salpointe coaching staff with (assistant) Vic Acuña, (head coach) Danny Preble and (strength and conditioning) coach Carla Garrett. They’ve all helped me better myself and continue my development and I couldn’t thank them enough.”
McGee, a third baseman, started 56 of the 57 games and got hit by a pitch 23 times this season. He also led the team in walks drawn (37) and on-base percentage (.450).
When Salpointe won its first state title in 2019, McGee worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the seventh inning to hold off top-seed Gilbert Mesquite in a 4-3 victory.
“I know they (his teammates) are going to play defense behind me, so that’s never going to be a problem,” McGee told reporters after the game of his performance.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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