Pledging Allegiance

An approach to rediscovering the fan inside of me after years entrenched in the business

Later this week, the 2021 MLB regular season will be underway. All 30 teams play on Thursday, with the first pitch of the season scheduled to come from Gerrit Cole in the Bronx. The final game of Opening Day will begin when the “very boring” Marco Gonzales toes the rubber for the Mariners against the Giants in a preview of the 2025 World Series.

Lately, people have been asking me which team I root for. If you cut into me deep enough (please don’t; it’s just a metaphor), you’ll find I bleed orange. When I first started working for the Padres, people from Baltimore would ask me if I still rooted for the Orioles. They seemed genuinely disappointed when I said no.

The moment I walked into Petco Park as an employee, my relationship to the game changed. The word “we” took on a different meaning. I was now part of the we. It wasn’t a spot-in-the-lineup we, but it was a sign-my-paycheck we and occasionally a seat-on-the-charter we. It was an in-the-room-for-the-draft we and a formally-report-the-trade-for-Vinny Castilla we. I was a Padre, and even “rooting” for the team felt like the wrong term.

In 2004, the Padres traveled to New York to play the Yankees. At the time, I was still a baseball outsider. I had met Kevin Towers earlier that year, and he invited me to join him at Yankee Stadium.

We were together for a particularly painful and memorable game that series. After David Wells provided seven scoreless innings for the Padres, the Yanks tied the game on back-to-back two-out homers in the bottom of the ninth off Trevor Hoffman.

Three innings later, the Yankees scored four runs off Rod Beck to overcome a three-run deficit and pull out a classic Yankee Stadium victory.

Much earlier in the game — when it was still a pitcher’s duel — I noticed KT reacting strongly to almost every pitch. It was June, the Padres still had 100 games left to play; to me, his behavior seemed more appropriate for the seventh game of the World Series.

I said something to him. Really, it was phrased more in the form of a question. I was curious as to his level of engagement in every pitch: How could he expect to maintain that level of intensity for another three-plus months?

I think I failed to understand, for one, that he was returning to the scene of the crime for the first time — back where Game 1 of the 1998 World Series slipped out of the Padres hands.

More importantly, though, I just didn’t get it. KT was we; I was still they. His work could be measured with every pitch, the sum of which determined his success for the season.

As I approach the new season, I know I’m no longer we, but I can’t get back to they quite yet either. It leaves me in a strange place when it comes to team allegiances.

I root for good baseball. I root for balls in play. I root for starting pitchers to throw complete games. I also enjoy following specific players whom I’ve scouted or otherwise crossed paths with over the years.

The Mariners are about to break north, the Padres will head east, and the regular season will begin. You didn’t get me this year, Peoria!

Here are some of the players I’ll be watching closely this season:

Jonah Heim | C | TEX

Heim is with his fourth team in the last six years. Originally selected in the fourth round of the 2013 Draft by the Orioles, Heim reached the big leagues last season with the A’s. I scouted him during the 2015 season when he was in Low-A Delmarva, and I thought he would develop into an everyday Major League catcher. He’s a tall, switch-hitting catcher who reminded me a little of the catcher who was holding down the position for the O’s at the time: Matt Wieters.

Heim was traded in 2016 to Tampa Bay for Steve Pearce. The next year, the Rays sent him to Oakland, where he remained for three seasons. Last month — soon before Spring Training began — Oakland included him with Khris Davis in the deal with the Rangers that yielded Elvis Andrus.

The 25-year-old Heim is likely to make the Rangers Opening Day roster as the backup catcher. He needs playing time, but with a minor league season that might (or might not) start on May 1, there’s really nowhere to find it. Heim has struggled offensively this spring, and he didn’t do much last season at bat either — his next extra base hit will be his first.

As part of a rebuilding team, Heim should be given every opportunity to develop and succeed. That — coupled with the hiring of Chris Young as GM — is enough to get me to tune into Rangers baseball this year.

Brett Martin | LHP | TEX

Okay, here’s another reason I will watch the Rangers. I saw Martin pitch for the Hickory Crawdads in 2015, and I was reminded of Patrick Corbin as he was making his way up through the minors. There was a lot of projection involved in my evaluation at the time, but Martin had the athleticism, the size, delivery, and arm action to bet on.

Martin has made 66 appearances over the past two seasons, and — on a Rangers pitching staff full of questions — he will have the opportunity to log innings if he can stay healthy. He’ll open the season on the Injured List because of back spasms, but he should be active by mid-April.

Brailyn Marquez | LHP | CHI

Marquez was a COVID big leaguer who wasn’t mentioned when I featured similar players not too long ago. Marquez made the jump from A-ball to the big leagues last season. In his debut, he issued back-to-back walks and uncorked a wild pitch before recording his first out. He ended up being charged with five runs in less than an inning of work. That’s his only big league appearance to date.

I saw him pitch in the Arizona Summer League in July 2017 when he was just 18 years old. Following Marquez this year will probably require a subscription to MiLB.TV. He’s already been optioned to the Tennessee Smokies, but his path back to Wrigley is clear.

Trevor Stephan | RHP | CLE

I saw Stephan pitch for the Staten Island Yankees during the 2017 season, and he possessed the look and presence of a big leaguer. His overall strike-throwing ability was undeniable; his fastball topped out at 96, and the ball really jumped out of his hand. The most noticeable difference between now and then is that his slider seems to have improved greatly.

The Indians selected him in December’s Rule 5 Draft, and the club has already informed him that he’ll be on the Opening Day roster.

Jose Marmolejos | 1B/LF | SEA

I think I said it all here already. Marmolejos is a player I never expected to see in a big league uniform. He’s made it this far, and I’m rooting for him.

Taylor Trammell | OF | SEA

Trammell is a top-100 prospect in baseball, and he’s been traded twice already. The Reds selected him with the 35th overall pick of the 2016 Draft, then traded him to the Padres in 2019 as part of a three-way deal that put Trevor Bauer in Cincinnati. The Pads then sent Trammell to Seattle last August as part of a seven-player trade.

Of course, this got me thinking about prospects who had been twice traded before their first taste of the big leagues. It’s a very short list, but it includes a contemporary of Trammell in Jeter Downs.

In 2017, it was the Reds once again in the first round — this time with the 32nd overall pick. They traded Downs to the Dodgers in December 2018 as part of another seven-player deal — including Yasiel Puig and Matt Kemp. About one year later, Downs was off to Boston in the trade that sent Mookie Betts and David Price to LA.

It’s only a matter of time until Trammell and Downs are traded for each other, right?

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