Hunter Jr. last played a full season of baseball in his junior year for Prosper High School in Texas, batting .393 with six home runs and 13 stolen bases in 2012. A broken femur prompted him to focus on football for the next two years, but he joined the Notre Dame baseball program in the spring of 2015 and spent his sophomore and junior year as a part-time outfielder, playing in a combined 23 games and drawing one start.
Hunter Jr. was initially a 36th-round Draft pick by the Tigers in 2013, his father's first of two seasons in Detroit.