Wearing his newly-issued Milwaukee Brewers uniform (number 5), Nevin Ashley stepped to the plate in the top of the second inning of last night’s September 9 game against the Miami Marlins.
Ashley was no stranger to the right-handed batter’s box. He’d stepped in next to the plate over 3500 times in the minors.
Nevin Ashley was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (yes – it was so long ago that you could still use the word “devil” in your team name). Taken in the 6th round of the 2006 MLB June Amateur Draft from Indiana State University, Ashley has toiled in the minors for almost ten years, playing nearly every game in that most grueling and thankless of positions – behind the plate.
Plotting the 31-year-old Ashley’s jaunts around the different minor leagues and teams might look as though a two-year-old had scribbled on a map of the U.S. Ashley first set up camp in the Rookie League with the Princeton Devil Rays in West Virginia, then spent 2007 in A ball with the Columbus Catfish of the South Atlantic League. Then there was Charlotte for A+, Montgomery for AA, Phoenix for Fall League, back to Montgomery… you get the picture.
He remained with the Rays organization until 2012 when he took a foul tip and broke his hand while suited up with the Rays AAA affiliate Durham Bulls.
The Rays released him after the season.
He managed to latch on with the Cincinnati Reds AAA organization in 2013, but admitted that he then felt that the door to the majors was closing.
It was his bride who encouraged him to stay with it.
After a season with the Pittsburgh Pirates AAA affiliate in 2014, Ashley signed with the Brewers AAA team in Colorado Springs, hitting .306 in 94 games.
While his AAA career assigned Ashley some fairly average batting stats (.259 / .339 / .391 with an OPS of .730 over 318 games), he brings an enviable .993 fielding percentage to the diamond’s toughest position. Plus, he has thrown out an impressive 36% of those who try to steal on him (comparatively, in six MLB years, Brewer fan favorite Jonathan Lucroy has a .992 fielding percentage, and has never thrown out more than 31% of base thieves).
And while Lucroy and fellow Brewer receiver Martin Maldonado watched from the visitors’ dugout, the rookie Ashley (who is actually older than both of the club’s veteran catchers) took his first two pitches from the Marlins right-hander Tom Koehler. Then, on his first major league swing, Ashley gets his first major league hit — a no-doubt double into the left-center gap, and also plates his first major league RBI by driving in teammate Khris Davis.
Some rookies get some wake-up-to-the-majors chin music at their first at bat. Some flail at the knee-buckling pitches from the seasoned pro on the mound. Announcers often cap the moment by saying “welcome to the big leagues”. But sometimes, the rookie is undeterred, knows his job and gets the bat on the ball, and gets his team on the board.
Welcome to the big leagues, Nevin Ashley.
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