SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. >> Even the great Johnny Bench, who revolutionized the catching position, wasn’t a first-round draft choice out of high school.

In June 1965, in baseball’s first free-agent draft for amateurs, the Cincinnati Reds selected the future Hall of Famer in the second round out of Binger High School (Oklahoma) with the 36th overall pick. Fifty-five years later, the Rockies selected Drew Romo with the 35th (supplemental pick) of the first round in the summer of 2020. He was the first catcher the Rockies selected in the top 100 picks of the draft since 1998.

The draft-and-develop Rockies dove in to swim against the tide.

Conventional baseball wisdom says that drafting a prep catcher, particularly in the first round, is risky business because they tend to take so long to develop, and because of the wear and tear of baseball’s most demanding position.

Dating back to 2015, only seven high school catchers have been drafted in the first round. Only two were selected in the first round in 2020 — Romo and Oakland’s Tyler Soderstrom.

The most recent first-round prep catcher to make it as an everyday player in the majors is Cincinnati’s Tyler Stephenson. He was drafted in 2015 and didn’t make his big-league debut until 2020 when he was almost 24 years old.

But Romo has a chance to be a baseball rarity and Jerry Weinstein is thrilled the Rockies rolled the dice.

“If you take a standpoint of ‘always do this, or never do that,’ you’re going to miss the exceptions, you’re going to miss the outliers,” said the 79-year-old Weinstein, who still works as a Rockies special assistant and roving catching instructor. “And that explains Drew Romo. You’re never going to find players like him if you have blinders on.”

Weinstein has coached Romo extensively and is convinced the 21-year-old catcher has all of the skills necessary to succeed in the majors.

“You have four pillars in catching: receiving, throwing, blocking and game management, and Drew has the skills to be exceptional in all of them,” Weinstein said. “And I’m not even mentioning his offense.”

Romo, quietly confident and all business, has no doubt the Rockies made the right decision.

“I’m 100% (prepared) for where I’m at,” said Romo, who committed to LSU before signing with the Rockies for a $2.1 million slot bonus. “I’ve always been prepared for big situations and stuff like that. That’s a testament to all of the levels of baseball I’ve played at.”

Ask anyone who knows Romo and they’ll tell you that he’s mature well beyond his years. His personality, hard work and obsession with details have a lot to do with that.

Romo was an old soul even before the Rockies drafted him at age 18 out of The Woodlands (Texas) High School in 2018.

By age 12, he was a committed catcher and self-proclaimed perfectionist. Along with his father, Chris Romo, the young backstop attended clinics, read books and studied drills on YouTube to hone his gritty, sweaty craft.

“He wasn’t your typical high school catcher, he was like a coach on the field at times,” said Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt, who was the club’s scouting director when it tabbed Romo. “It was apparent to all the (major league) scouts that he was advanced behind the plate.”

But all of that preparation didn’t prevent Romo from being a bit star-struck by his first big-league spring training.

“It’s sick,” he said. “It’s sick being around these guys in the big-league locker room. It’s pretty cool.”

Manager Bud Black said a dose of big-league seasoning will do Romo good.

“To rub shoulders with (Kyle) Freeland and (German) Marquez, (Kris) Bryant, (Charlie) Blackmon, it’s a stepping stone of development,” Black said. “You knock the awe off of being around big league players.”