It didn’t take former Hewitt-Trussville star Steele Hall long to hear his name called Sunday night.

The Tennessee shortstop signee was selected No. 9 overall by the Cincinnati Reds in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft. He was the first player selected with Alabama connections.

“I think (speed is) what put him into the category that he’s in now, because when he was first recruited or sought after by college programs, he was a smaller kid, couldn’t run quite as well as he can now, and it wasn’t about the bat at all,” Tennessee coach Tony Vitello said of Hall on ESPN. “It was just about the glove. And then he started having a little bit more arm strength come along, the speed became a factor, then the hit tool — hit a lot of home runs this year as a high school player but again reclassed.

“He hit a growth spurt and this time last summer, no scout would say that this kid could be drafted this high in the first round, but now everybody was kind of salivating over the opportunity of him maybe being in the middle of the (first round). It didn’t even happen there.”

He is entitled to a signing bonus in excess of $6 million, according to MLB’s draft pick slot value system. He was the fifth shortstop taken in the first nine picks of the draft.

Hall, who started his high school career at Daphne before transferring to Hewitt-Trussville prior to his sophomore season, was named Alabama’s Mr. Baseball in June by the Alabama Sports Writers Association.

The Class 7A Player of the Year hit .484 for the Huskies this spring with 8 homers, 14 doubles, 35 RBIs and 46 runs scored. He also was the MaxPreps Alabama Player of the Year.

“If you can play short, you can play anywhere,” Vitello said. “I believe that in my heart. Steele Hall’s a guy who might end up in center field, running them down in the gap. Just put him at shortstop and let him down his thing, and then we’ll figure it out later.”

He is the first Alabama player drafted in the first round out of high school since UMS-Wright pitcher Maddux Bruns in 2021.

Hall, who moved in to Tennessee last week, watched the draft with family and friends in Trussville.

“Steele possesses skill sets that honestly we’ve never seen before in a 17-year-old kid as far as the twitchiness of his game, the athleticism, the speed, the power, arm strength,” Hewitt-Trussville coach Jeff Mauldin said. “Also, earlier this year, he was doing some things mentally that we had never seen. God has truly blessed him. When you talk about a 5-tool player, Steele is probably actually a 6-tool player if you add the mental part of it.”

This post will be updated