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Baseball Journeys

You won’t find many places discussing Adam Everett’s DFA or Bobby Scales’ new contract with the Nippon Ham Fighers. For the most part, those that are deserving of Major League jobs have them, and the difference between being the 26th best player and the 40th best player in an organization often doesn’t mean much to a Major League Club’s success. 

But I love glovemen, utility guys, minor league journeymen; men who may not have been the most talented, or had the most tools, but who refused to give up on their dreams.

For a while, Adam Everett’s glove was the baseball equivalent of a Green Lantern power ring: anything he visualized on defense he could do, posting WARs above two while not once approaching being a league average hitter. It was a tradeoff any team and any pitching staff would be willing to make. But over the last few years, age has caught up with Everett and his bat has gone from poor to horrifying and his infield range can no longer cover up the .017 ISO he has this season. With the Indians in a tailspin, they had no choice but to send Everett down and bring up top prospect Lonnie Chisenhall. I’m sure Everett will find a role at some point with some team, but he must take his AAA lumps without much fanfare.

Bobby Scales’ story is much different as he heads to Japan to chase a larger paycheck, perhaps finally giving up on his Major League dreams. Scales is a 33-year-old who has played nearly every position in his career in the search for playing time. In 2009, and ten years after signing with the Padres, Scales finally made his Major League debut with the Cubs, collecting his first of everything in the Majors.

It was a great story, but unlike in movies, the story didn’t end there with Scales securing an everyday job with the Cubs until the end of time. Last year, Scales only received 20 plate appearances with the Major League team, and he must have decided, for the first time, that his chances of sticking in the Show did not outweigh the financial benefits that Japanese professional baseball offered.

It’s impossible to capture all of the moves like these that are made everyday, usually hidden in newspapers next to last night’s box scores, but they’re important to consider nonetheless. As social media and fantasy baseball makes baseball players all the more abstract, it’s essential to remember that these are men and professional baseball features far too many hardships and failures to be considered just a boyhood dream. 

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