Minor Leagues – By Jon Schwartz

Ready for Liftoff

(This story originally appeared in the August 2020 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

I can’t say that I’ve ever been one of those baseball fans who obsesses over prospects. The fact is, there’s so much projection involved, so much luck, so much precarious uncertainty, that sometimes it’s just smarter to wait until they do something before you fall in love. It helps that the teams that a I root for / work for are in big markets (or, in the case of the Mets, are in a big market but insist on pretending that they’re not) and are usually trading prospects for major league–ready players, rather than the other way around.

With that said, most of my favorite stories to write during my time in baseball have been minor league features. The access is about 4,000 times better than what you get with big leaguers and the stories are just more interesting. Sure, there are grinders who you’ll find in a big-league clubhouse, but it’s not too often that you’re going to be the one to tell the ultimate story about a guy’s harrowing adventure to establish an identity, as I was able to do with Estevan Florial, or to shine a light on the tumultuous life of a low-minors infielder who — having overcome homelessness during high school — is learning to play catcher on the fly, as I could with Donny Sands. When I lucked into telling the story of the Yankees attempting to turn Dermis Garcia into a pitcher, it was the type of feature that almost by definition couldn’t come from the clubhouse in Yankee Stadium. They just don’t do that stuff up in the majors.

With Jasson Dominguez, some of both sides of that dichotomy came into play. First off, he’s as exciting a prospect as you’ll see, this massive tank of a person, just 16 years old when we were chatting. He’s a kid, but he’s also the guy who signed the biggest contract ever in the international signing period. The Yankees made a huge bet on the young Dominican, and when you see him for the first time, all you can do is nod and say, “Yeah, that makes sense.” As Donny Rowland, the Yankees’ international scouting director, said, “He’s the kind of player that makes the hair on your arm stand up when you watch him”

Back in January, I spent a few days with Jasson at the Yankees’ Dominican Baseball Academy. This was before the world came crashing down, as the youngster was embarking on his first full year in the system, starting down a road that could eventually lead him to the Bronx. I was there on his first day of on-field work for the year, when he struggled to make a nice-and-easy toss to his throwing partner. I watched him airmail like 12 balls, worried that my presence was making this kid nervous. Then it hit me: he’s never thrown a ball nice and easy in his entire life. Dominguez had been working since he was about 5 years old for the chance to play on a big-league field. He’s had scouts and advisers watching him his whole life, a constant need to put on a show. His life has been about showing how hard he could throw, not about showing that he could just toss a ball back and forth. It was illuminating, in not entirely positive ways.

Who knows what this lost year will do the Dominguez’s timeline. It was possible that he could have spent some time in one of the American short-season leagues this year, whether in Pulaski or Staten Island. Instead, he continues to wait. And while he does, the legend of the Martian will continue to grow in absentia.

I really enjoyed writing this one. It was fun to meet Jasson, fun to tell his story, and it’s always nice to go to the Dominican Republic (I even got to check out a game in the Dominican World Series while I was there, which was awesome). Who knows how long it will be before I can travel for another baseball story, so that part makes for a fun memory, as well.

https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/jasson-dominguez-is-ready-for-liftoff?t=yankees-magazine

Player Developer

(This story originally appeared in the May 2019 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

Nothing too crazy here. I’d dealt with Patrick Osborn a time or two, and he seemed like a fun, youthful, interesting guy. In particular, I liked that he was managing Double-A, the same level at which he petered out during his own career. So essentially, he was trying to teach players to do something that he, himself, wasn’t able to do.

Pat let me hang with him for a full day, in meetings, during downtime, and even in the dugout during the game. It was fun watching the whole day play out, and I think the story is a fun look at life on the farm. ]

https://www.mlb.com/news/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-minor-league-manager

Tyler and the Miracles

(This story originally appeared in the April 2019 edition of Yankees Magazine.)

This one really fell into my lap, and I can’t say enough about how grateful I am for that. A colleague on the Tampa side of the Yankees’ operation emailed a co-worker to mention this interesting story about a Yankees draft pick who was allowed to keep his long hair, which goes against the team’s well-known (and oft-mocked) grooming policy. She mentioned that it might be cool as short item for the front of book section.

Basically, the story was that the player, Tyler Johnson, was growing out his hair to make a wig for his mother, who had been diagnosed with leukemia. My coworker had recently taken another job, so she passed the email on to me, and I was intrigued right away.

I had no idea how amazing the story would become, though.

It turns out, Tyler had his own dramatic and traumatic medical history, one that shaped his mentality and his whole life. So he was determined to pitch professionally, and his mother was determined to watch him pitch professionally, and it was all a crazy pipe dream, until it wasn’t. But on that fateful day when the Yankees drafted him and told him to cut his hair, he explained the situation. Eventually, the question made it all the way to the team’s owner Hal Steinbrenner, who insisted that Johnson not cut his hair until he could get it long enough to make the wig.

This was a heart-wrenching story to write. Tyler’s mom, Bethanne, walked me through years of nightmares, of horror I could never imagine. Tyler told me stories I simply couldn’t conceive of. I would hang up and wipe tears from my eyes. Instead of a small item on a quirky, out-of-place hairdo, it became one of the most meaningful stories I’ve ever had the privilege to write.

I hope you’ll read and enjoy.

https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-prospect-johnson-defies-the-odds

Master Craftsman

(This story originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

I hope I’m wrong when I say this, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get to work on a more interesting reporting project. I had been circling something like this for a while, hanging out with a minor league roving instructor as he moved from town to town coaching different players. Between the Drew Henson scouting story that I wrote in 2016 and my feature last year about Donny Sands learning how to play catcher, I’ve long been fascinated by the people behind the scenes, the ones who help the players develop into major leaguers.

When I started asking around the Yankees front office, a bunch of people pointed me toward Danny Borrell, one of the team’s two pitching coordinators. I had never met Danny, had never heard of him, and didn’t really know what to expect. But he was open to the story from the start, and agreed to let me tag along on two trips — Staten Island and Pulaski.

The night before we started, he emailed me to say that he was actually going to be in Charleston instead of Pulaski, that something really big was happening. Normally, when big things happen around the team, we’re told to stay away. This was a rare case when I was being told that something huge was happening, and that I should make sure I was there for it. It was a no-brainer.

He wouldn’t tell me what the big news was until after it happened, so we spent the first few days just watching the way he interacted with all the young minor leaguers — Short-Season A-ballers in Staten Island, then Low-A players in Charleston. It was fascinating. Danny would strap on catching gear and catch all the bullpens (despite being A: left-handed; and B: a former pitcher). He just has the most positive way about him, always laughing, joking, teaching. The best thing about writing minor league stories is that you really get total access. I have never stepped in the bullpen at Yankee Stadium, but while I was following Danny around, I was basically standing next to the pitchers as they were doing their workouts. It was awesome.

Danny let me hang out in meetings, he let me stand over his shoulder as he watched video with players, he let me stay next to him while he watched the games. The only time he told me he needed me to stay away for a few minutes was when they had the big meeting. As it turned out, they were taking Dermis Garcia — a pretty substantial prospect in Charleston — and letting him try to pitch. Garcia has never pitched, but his arm from third base was incredible, and Borrell had long been pining to get him onto a mound. And after Brian Cashman and his team spent time in the offseason pursuing Shohei Ohtani, they were encouraged enough by the idea of a two-way player to see if Garcia might have the chops to handle it. So they presented it to him, he enthusiastically accepted, and the next day, we stood right along the bullpen as Garcia threw off a mound for the first time in his life.

This story was an absolute joy to write, everything I could have hoped for and more. I don’t think I’ll ever have access like this again. I’m happy with how it came out.

https://www.mlb.com/news/danny-borrell-molds-yankees-young-pitchers/c-287603796

A Major Minor Showcase

(This story originally appeared in the August 2018 issue of Yankees Magazine.)

The Trenton Thunder were hosting the Double-A All-Star Game this past July, and since they are a Yankees affiliate, it was only natural that we’d do a magazine piece on the spectacle.

I’ve been to eight MLB All-Star Games, so I was really interested to see how this minor league version would compare, and what I saw was an absolute delight. It was everything that makes minor league baseball so fun, just amped up about 300 percent. They still had Rookie the bat dog retrieving lumber in the early innings, but they also had Budweiser Clydesdales doing a lap of the warning track. The Thunder have a pork roll mascot (and on Fridays, the team wears Trenton Pork Roll uniforms). I laughed literally every time I saw the weird pink meat costume wandering the concourses. All of the silliness and nonsense (in the best way) was still there. It was just amped up.

I sat in the press box over these two days listening to one soon-retiring New York Post writer bemoaning the assignment, hoping that Tim Tebow wouldn’t do anything special, so that he wouldn’t have to write about it. Dude, we get it. This isn’t The Masters. But I really loved covering this event, and I’d love to do it again sometime.

https://www.mlb.com/news/trenton-packs-the-fun-into-aa-all-star-game/c-287605738