Skip to content
Phillies
Link copied to clipboard

Church of baseball: Phillies prospect Cornelius Randolph leans on his pastor father

As the former first-round pick moves up the Phillies system, he relies on his faith — and tips from his dad.

It is only natural that the preaching sometimes drifts to baseball at the Chappel Hill Baptist Church in Williamson, Ga.

There is a lot of life in baseball, the pastor often tells his congregation. And the preacher would know.

The voice behind those sermons - Cedric Randolph - is the father of Cornelius Randolph, the Phillies' first-round pick and 10th overall in 2015. Before Randolph stood a chance to play a key role in a Phillies revival, he was simply the son of a pastor.

"Everybody knew my dad. 'Oh, you're the pastor's kid,' " Randolph said. "I would be in middle school and do something bad and they would be like, 'I'm telling your dad. You can't be doing this stuff. You're the pastor's kid.' It was pretty much like that all through high school."

The pastor's kid is holding his own this season as a 19-year-old outfielder at high-A Clearwater in a league where the average batter is 22.8 years old. Randolph, who will turn 20 in June, said he has played with and against older competition for his whole life. He started his season with homers in three straight games, which served as confirmation that he belonged.

Randolph entered Thursday batting .228 in his first 57 at-bats with a .343 on-base percentage and .404 slugging percentage. He has worked nine walks but has 16 strikeouts in 16 games.

The leftfielder's test comes a year after a trying season in which he was plagued by injuries. Randolph played in just 63 games last season at low-A Lakewood.

"I had never really experienced injuries, never really struggled. I had both of those in one season," Randolph said. "It was like, 'OK. This is what it's like. Let's not do that again.' "

Randolph plays on a team loaded with pitching prospects. Outfielder Mickey Moniak, the No. 1 pick last June, is a level below with some of the system's brightest arms. Scott Kingery, who was drafted a round after Randolph, is one level ahead. The Phillies have legitimate prospects on each of their four minor-league teams. A revival, if their prospects pan out, seems near.

"One hundred percent," Randolph said. "Even guys that aren't on top prospect lists. There's a lot of great players. This is just a great organization to be a part of."

His father became a pastor 14 years ago, when a friend introduced him to a member of Chappel Hill, which was looking for a new pastor. Cedric Randolph, too, grew up as a pastor's kid. He is responsible for the preaching at Sunday services, funerals, and weddings. The church is not big enough to support Randolph as his full-time job, so he works during the day as a project manager.

"I tell folks that I've been blessed," Cedric Randolph said. "My father owned a construction company, so I was taught a trade. My profession that I went to school for is engineering and my calling is of a pastor. God got me to where I am. I'm coming three ways: with a trade, a profession, and a calling."

The pastor visited his son last weekend and found his usual seat behind third base at Spectrum Field in Clearwater. He filmed each of his son's at-bats and then brought the film to dinner so they could dissect it. This is how it always is.

Cornelius Randolph has long sought hitting advice from his father, who taught himself the intricacies of baseball after he started coaching Randolph's older brother, Xavier. Cedric Randolph soaked up baseball knowledge from wherever he could find it after one of his older son's teammates asked him a question that he could not answer.

Randolph was a high school senior when his father reminded him during a session at the batting cages that he will not always be there once he goes to college or plays pro ball. He has to start figuring out things for himself, his father said. So when they huddled at dinner last week, the advice was different.

"He has a hitting instructor and they want him to do a certain thing," Cedric Randolph said. "What I try to do is to take from what he tells me about what they want him to do and try to figure a way to get him to work the way he used to and make that work."

The Phillies drafted Randolph a week after he turned 18, gave him $3.2 million, and moved him from shortstop to left field. Change was swift and the path to the majors has not always been easy.

Faith, Randolph said, has helped guide him. And when he finds himself in his father's church, he'll often be reminded that baseball and his faith are intertwined.

"Baseball, of all the sports that I know, is the closest thing to life," Cedric Randolph said. "When you're at the plate, it's just you and the pitcher. When you're in the field, you have to play as a team. That comes from the gamut of life. Even when I coached, I would tell the young men that you may have a talent, but to show that you appreciate it, you give your all just like Jesus Christ gave his all."

mbreen@phillynews.com

@matt_breen philly.com/philliesblog