Major League Baseball teams toss their fishnets all over the globe in hope of landing talent. No distance is too far.

Other times teams get lucky and find what they’re looking for in their own backyard.

Michael Harris II grew up in DeKalb, Ga., 10 miles from Atlanta, and starred in baseball at Stockbridge High School, 21 miles from “The ATL.”

He also showed his skills in the Marquis Grissom Baseball Association in South Atlanta.

The swift, 21-year-old left-handed centerfielder, batting ninth in manager Brian Snitker’s Atlanta Braves’lineup, is high on the list of candidates for National League Rookie of Year.

“I think it’s great to have a local kid,” said Dana Brown, Atlanta’s vice president for scouting. “We take the best players available but if he happens to be local, that’s icing on the cake.”

Harris was Atlanta’s third round draft pick in 2019 out of Stockbridge High and shot like a rocket through the minor leagues despite missing 2020 due to the pandemic. He skipped right over AAA Gwinnett, Ga., to Atlanta from High-A Rome, Ga., of the South Atlantic League.

At 6 feet and well-sculpted 195 pounds, Harris has been hitting more like a top-of-the- order hitter than a ninth man, aka “the caboose.”

Through Aug. 5, Harris was hitting .290 with nine home runs, 33 runs batted in and 11 stolen bases.

Defensively, the newcomer has already been compared to some superb Braves’ centerfielders of yesterday such as Grissom (on 1995 World Series champs), Bill Bruton (when team was in Milwaukee), Dale Murphy, Ender Inciarte and Andruw Jones.

With Harris’ arrival, Adam Duvall (centerfielder on last year’s World Series winners) has moved to the right.

Some of Harris’ stiffest competition for top rookie might come from pitching teammate Spencer Strider, famous for his Clark Gable mustache and 100-mile-per hour fastball.

From Columbus, Ohio, by way of Clemson University, Strider was 6-3 with a 2.79 earned run average and an eye-popping 133 strikeouts through 87 innings as of Aug. 5.

The Rookie of the Year Award is named after Jackie Robinson, who was the first recipient of the honor in 1947 with Brooklyn.

Many still consider Richmond a “Braves Town,” even though the Richmond Flying Squirrels (San Francisco Giants affiliate) have been at The Diamond since 2010.

Squirrels management has done a remarkable job of attracting home crowds (averaging more than 6,000 fans per night) but not much translates into turning RVA into Giants fans.

Part of that is because the Giants are some 3,000 miles away and many of their games (starting about 10 p.m., Eastern) finish well after the East Coast has gone to bed. That makes it hard to follow Squirrels (Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, etc.) who have been called up to Oracle Park.

By contrast, the Atlanta Braves games were shown nightly on owner Ted Turner’s station (WTGC) long before the current big league TV packages were hatched. It helped that Atlanta won 11 NL East division titles, 1995 to ’05, featuring such ex-R-Braves as Murphy, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine.

After all these years, Atlanta Braves games are still broadcast in Richmond on radio W291CL- FM, 106.1 and WURV-HD2, 103.7.

If neither Brave becomes Rookie of the Year, another candidate might be Pittsburgh shortstop Oneil Cruz who, at 6-foot-7, is the tallest player to ever play that position on a regular basis.

From the Dominican Republic, the 23-year-old set another record earlier this season when his throw across the diamond from short was timed at 96.7 mph. He has also produced an exit speed of 112.9 on one of his hits.

As of Aug. 4, the left-handed hitting Cruz had a .225 average with nine homers, 30 RBI and unlimited range with the glove.

The Pirates’ only Rookie of the Year has been outfielder Jason Bay in 2004.