SEATTLE — The summer before his senior year of high school, JP Massey’s parents sat him down for a conversation that would shape his future. In addition to playing on his school’s baseball team, Massey was a member of Chicago’s RBI program, and scouts involved with that organization believed the teen’s recent growth spurt and the promise he made on the mound meant he could have a future as a professional pitcher.
Which was great news and all, but at the time, Massey also saw himself as a positional player working to hone his skills at home plate.
“I was more focused on hitting, and throwing was just something that came naturally,” Massey told Yahoo Sports.
Six years later, the 6-foot-5 right-hander pitches to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and was selected to play in Saturday’s Futures Game – a 5-0 win for the National League – as part of the All-Star festivities. MLB star this week. in Seattle. Turns out those scouts were onto something. But at the time, when his parents announced that someone from the RBI organization had contacted them, suggesting that Massey’s punching days should be numbered: “I didn’t want to know who told them, because it might have brought a bit of animosity on my part,” he said.
Almost universally, All-Star caliber players were once the best in all aspects of baseball. Go back far enough in their careers – even if it’s as far back as Little League – and there was a time when their sheer athleticism compared to their peers made it seem like they had potential in every corner of the diamond. But usually, as they progress and the competition stiffens, a path emerges that leads to either the mound or the plateau.
Massey didn’t care for him, it was the first. “It was just sad to know that I wouldn’t be hitting that much,” he said.
“And so I held on until high school. Then, once I got to college, I went in hoping to do both, and I started having a lot of success on the mound. I realized that was something that I could really progress to a career in MLB, hopefully and God willing, so now I’m getting through it and trying to achieve my dreams every day .
“I’m not trying to face myself”
For future professional pitchers in particular, there comes a time when they realize they have to drop – and play the field – behind them.
Mick Abel, the Philadelphia Phillies’ first-round pick in the 2020 draft that began for the NL on Saturday, last played first base as a junior in high school.
“I was fine,” he said. “I had nothing special.”
Tink Now, now the St. Louis Cardinals’ top pitching prospect, has only ever pitched on his travel team, but he played shortstop and outfield and hit third for his high school team. .
“My dad might yell at me because I didn’t get a hit or I didn’t get put out, and I’d be like, ‘It’s okay because I’m pitching the next day,'” he said. he declares.
Jonathan Cannon, a 6-foot-6 towering pitcher in the White Sox system, said he was his team’s best hitter until senior year of high school. Impressive in his hometown of Alpharetta, Georgia, no doubt, but: “My high school team wasn’t very good.”
“I think if you ask any of the guys here who are pitchers, they’ll all say they were good hitters in high school,” Cannon said. “But if we were good enough, we wouldn’t be doing this.”
Often, what turns out to be the breaking point in a potential pitcher’s career comes when they start facing pitchers who are, well, as good as they are.
“I loved hitting,” Cannon said. “I mean, honestly, I went to [University of] Georgia, and I thought I could hit, and then I looked at, like, two guys that were going to pitch a bullpen in the first round, and I was like, no chance.
“When I got here in pro ball, seeing guys throwing like me, I was like, ‘No, I’m not trying to face myself,'” So said.
“There just isn’t enough time to do both well,” said Will Klein, a Kansas City Royals pitcher who could crack the major league rotation as early as next season.
And before anyone can protest, they know exactly who you’re thinking of — the exception that proves the rule.
“I don’t know how Shohei has the time to hit and throw and be the best at both,” Klein said.
“For us, it’s amazing how he does it”
Shohei Ohtani, the second coming of Babe Ruth – except Ruth is remembered as the Sultan of Swat, and Ohtani is already guaranteed to go down in history as the greatest two-way baseball player ever. His success – currently Ohtani leads baseball in home runs while pitching at a 3.32 ERA – has made it impossible not wondering if anyone could follow in his footsteps.
Whether Ohtani is a unicorn or a trailblazer is a complicated question that requires considering his unique exceptional talents, as well as his unique journey to the majors across the Japanese professional baseball league Nippon. But conversations with elite pitchers who have had to give up hitting more recently than their big league counterparts can provide context for what a Herculean task it is to do both at the top level.
“It’s crazy for people who aren’t into baseball, how impressive it is,” Cannon said of Ohtani’s two-way ability. “But, to us, it’s mind-boggling how he does it.”
Their first-hand experience only underscores that baseball fans today are witnessing something that is anything but “impossible,” as Klein put it. “I don’t know. Give this man his money.
The problem – if you can call having to take on the constraints of reality a problem – is that it takes more than talent to go from amateur baseball to professional, through the minors and finally into the major leagues. It takes skill, honed by hours of training and, usually, singular focus.
In 2021, Spencer Schwellenbach won the NCAA John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year award after hitting .284 with six home runs, playing shortstop and throwing to an ERA below 1.00. He started college as a pure positional player, but was so successful when he added throwing that by the time the draft approached, different teams were expressing interest in his various skills.
“There were a few teams that liked me both and were willing to give it a try. But when the day came, I guess they didn’t want to do it,” Schwellenbach said.
Instead, the Atlanta Braves took him in the second round and asked him to specialize.
“I miss hitting. But they wanted me to pitch, so that’s what I have to do,” he said. “And I was ready to be a pitcher. It was so hard in college to throw 40 to 50 pitches and play shortstop the next day. It took a toll on my arm.
Schwellenbach blames that workload for needing surgery from Tommy John to repair his ulnar collateral ligament shortly after signing with the Braves. He came back from rehab this season as a pure pitcher, per the organization’s preference to protect his health, although he still thinks he could have been a two-way player.
But even Schwellenbach has to admit, “If you don’t specialize in one area, you won’t be as good at one as you can be.”
“It was my dream: to have a club at university”
The last time Massey swung a bat was during batting practice as a senior student.
“I hit a few bombs,” he said. “You can ask anyone who was there. I did a little show. So I’m still proud of it to this day, and I’ll stick with it forever.
Even with their two-way days behind them and their future on the mound looking bright, baseball’s best minor league pitchers can’t help but be proud of their home plate prowess — and look back on it with nostalgia.
Abel claims he was crushing line orders the other way when he took on BP at the end of last season. “It was awesome,” he said.
Back in college, Cannon competed in the annual home run derby.
“I would give people a run for their money,” he said, managing to punch a few, according to his own account. “Enough to qualify for the final. Which is like four.
Klein made it a play once as a first baseman. It was back in the collegiate summer league in Danville, Illinois, after most position players had gone home for the year. He claims to have landed a hit – a single the other way around – and upon hearing this, Cannon looked melancholy.
“It was my dream: to get a stick in college,” he said. “Like, I’m dreaming about this.”