Mike Vorel: Why some believe Seahawks rookie Grey Zabel's best sport was baseball

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RENTON, Wash. -- If Grey Zabel played a senior baseball season, he might not be here.

Before Zabel became a Seahawk, or won two national titles at North Dakota State, he was a three-sport standout at T.F. Riggs High School in Pierre, S.D. He excelled at football, baseball and basketball, depending on the season, dispensing physicality from his 6-foot-6 frame.

In the fall, Grey was a mainstay on both lines of scrimmage, and punted for the football team. Not that much punting was needed. The Governors won three consecutive state titles and set a South Dakota scoring record in his senior season.

Considering the context -- two all-state football selections at T.F. Riggs, 36 consecutive starts on NDSU's offensive line, first-team FCS All-America honors in 2024, an immediate starting spot after being drafted by the Seahawks 18th overall -- you'd assume Grey's path was a given.

But here's the curveball.

"If I had to pick -- and I watched all of his football games and baseball games growing up -- I really believe baseball was his better sport," said Derk Campbell, Zabel's high school assistant baseball coach.

Added Brian White, his American Legion summer league coach: "It worked out really well for him. But there are definitely baseball coaches in South Dakota that still, to this day, after he's been a first-round (NFL) draft pick, think he might have made the wrong decision. He had the potential to be that good."

In the spring of 2019, Zabel was an overwhelming left-handed pitcher, 250 pounds of focused fury. He touched 91 mph as a high school junior, while mixing a sweeping curveball and a merciless circle change. He amassed a 0.68 ERA in six starts and 31 innings as a junior, while compiling 51 strikeouts and 17 walks. He surrendered three earned runs in the whole season, all in the same start.

"He was pretty unique," Campbell said. "Grey Zabel just dominated. When he was playing, it was a given we were going to win. He didn't have to throw his best stuff, and we were still going to win."

Confirmed Cade Hinkle, his longtime catcher: "You don't see many big left-handed pitchers that can throw that hard. When you see that big lefty get up there, it put a fear into people that came up to the plate."

The ability to infuse fear ran in the family. Peyton Zabel, Grey's older brother, was an imposing pitcher and quarterback at T.F. Riggs as well. A 6-7, 246-pound pitcher, Peyton featured a high-90s fastball and was picked by the Brewers in the 19th round of the 2018 MLB draft. He opted to play baseball and football at Augustana University, and later transferred to Iowa Western Community College and Texas State.

It's no coincidence that the Zabel brothers -- Peyton, Grey and Jett (currently a redshirt freshman tight end at NDSU) -- were all pitchers.

It's also no coincidence that they were all competitive.

"During COVID, when Peyton was home from college and Grey was a senior, it was two against two playing basketball on the driveway every night," said Grey's mother, Tanna Zabel. "So it was Mark (their dad, who played football at Northern State University in South Dakota) and the three boys, and it got cutthroat really fast. I just said, 'You guys do your thing, and no one comes inside if they're bloody.'

"Whether it was football, whether it was basketball, whether it was baseball, everything was a competition at the house."

But those basketball games were possible only because other competitions got canceled. In the spring of 2020, Grey's senior baseball season -- and the path it may have provided -- was suddenly swept away.

"I think he was going to be drafted in baseball, to be honest with you," Campbell said. "He had a lot of teams looking at him. The (Colorado) Rockies were calling and trying to find out when he was going to be pitching. His junior year, they came twice and watched him throw."

Added Steve Gray, Zabel's high school baseball coach: "That (canceled season) may have changed the trajectory of what he's doing as an adult. My guess is he gets drafted out of high school, and he was probably going to take a different route than his brother did and would have taken the major league draft option. It changes where he's at. We're not talking right now (if that happens). It's kind of crazy."

White, his longtime legion coach, contends: "I would have been shocked if he didn't get drafted, and it would have been a very difficult decision for him at that point. COVID really changed the game."

Perhaps literally.

That's the five-year-old hypothetical, the fork in his road that never actually arrived.

Of course, you know what happened next. Grey didn't get drafted (yet). He committed to playing football at North Dakota State. He appeared at left tackle, right tackle, left guard and right guard across five seasons and 41 starts in Fargo, N.D. He won two national championships and dominated the Senior Bowl.

(He said playing both sports at NDSU was never seriously considered because "it would have been tough to stay in both football and baseball shape. So that was shut down pretty quick.")

Eventually, he made a splash in a different draft.

But first, Grey's baseball career closed with an iconic walk-off. Though his senior season was canceled, the soon-to-be Bison played for his American Legion team before departing for NDSU. Trailing 1-0 in his final game, Grey stepped to the plate as a steady rain fell inside Hyde Stadium.

"It was a 3-0 count," said the Seahawks rookie, who hit .433 with a homer and 18 RBIs in the 2020 legion season. "I looked down to the third base line, and my coach (White) wasn't even watching. He was talking to somebody in the opposing dugout."

While White and an opposing coach discussed whether to suspend the game due to rain, Zabel "just swung as hard as I possibly could," he recalled Wednesday.

"He hit a ball to dead center that still hasn't landed," White said with a laugh.

(Not entirely true. Grey's parents retrieved the rainy ball and have it displayed inside their house, in a glass cylinder.)

He hit a ball so hard and far it instantly ended the game.

"The best part is, after he hit it, the game shouldn't have been over. But with the storm coming in, we just called the game right then and there," White said. "We didn't go to our next hitter. We didn't finish the half inning. The other coach looked at me. We smiled and laughed. We were like, 'Are you guys good? Should we just get out of here? Yep, let's do it.'

"So he circled the bases, got his last glory run, and we legitimately ended the game at that point. It does kind of end with that folklore, that one play you can keep talking about."

Grey's pitching prowess, like his grand finale, have faded into folklore. But the metaphorical homers still haven't stopped. Since being picked by the Seahawks, the 6-6, 316-pounder has assumed a starting spot at left guard. On Wednesday, left tackle Charles Cross marveled that "Grey's been incredible so far, man. He's a smart guy. He plays very well, has a lot of great attributes. He's got a lot of great ball ahead of him."

There was also great ball behind. That was obvious on May 30, when Grey threw the ceremonial first pitch before a Mariners game. Surrounded by the Seahawks' entire rookie class, he lifted his massive leg and pumped a strike to utility man Dylan Moore.

Which, again, begs a question that may have affected franchises in two separate sports:

If he'd been drafted out of high school, what would he have done?

"No idea," Zabel said Wednesday, following the final practice of Seahawks minicamp. "It's one of those deals where you don't know how grateful you are in the moment that (the season) did get canceled. Maybe I would have had an opportunity to play baseball somewhere or gotten drafted.

"But at the end of the day, the man upstairs had a plan. I'm loving this plan so far."