12 years later, this 1st-rounder could finally reach Majors

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- In the fall of 2018, Seth Blair was pitching for a men’s league team called the Denver Royals on practice field 1 at Tempe Diablo Stadium, the Angels’ Spring Training complex in Arizona. He was broke and felt broken.

A first-round pick by the Cardinals in the 2010 Draft, Blair made it to Triple-A in St. Louis’ system in 2014, then fell out of affiliated baseball for four seasons. But there he was, scraping to get outs on a backfield against a men’s league lineup full of former pros while pitching in front of his young son for the first time. He was winning the game, but he said his arm hurt and he was “mentally defeated.”

After the third inning, Blair approached Brian Underhill, the Denver Royals manager, in the dugout.

“I was like, 'I'm done,'” Blair, 33, said. “'I'm done pitching. Forever.'"

Underhill wasn’t having it. He grabbed some IcyHot, pulled Blair outside the dugout and massaged his arm. Blair was crying, Underhill said, repeatedly saying he didn’t want to pitch anymore. Underhill kept talking him up, telling him he was in control. When that didn’t work, he made an offer: “Listen, I’ll give you $1,000 if you finish this game.”

Blair desperately needed the money. The quickest way to earn it was to pitch the next six innings. His competitive drive kicked in. His velocity spiked late. He only gave up one more hit, and sure enough, he finished the game.

“That was the first time I had my back against the wall again,” Blair said Sunday outside the Rays’ Spring Training clubhouse at Charlotte Sports Park, after recording one out in a 4-1 win over the Braves. “I wanted to quit, but once I had to go through it, it kind of gave me this peace of like, 'Well, that was a challenge and you made it through it, so you should try to keep going.'”

“He said it changed his life. That's the story that he always tells,” Underhill added in a phone interview. “It motivated him to where he kept training and stuck with it.”

Blair stuck with it and returned to affiliated baseball in 2019. He stuck with it through the lost spring of 2020, teaching himself to throw sidearm while helping big leaguers train in his backyard, then signed with the Red Sox. He stuck with it through the 2021 season, recording a 3.10 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over 32 appearances in the high Minors. And he’s sticking with it now with the Rays.

Blair was reassigned to Tampa Bay’s Minor League camp on Tuesday afternoon. But as far away from the Majors as his journey once took him, he’s as close now as he’s ever been.

“I think about it every second of every day. I didn't do all this work to not try to have that happen,” Blair said. “Really, it's for my 8-year-old son. I want him to see me make it to the big leagues so bad, so every day, that's just like all that's on my heart.”

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Twelve years ago, Blair was a big-time pitching prospect. The right-hander was named Pacific-10 Pitcher of the Year in 2010 and signed with the Cardinals as the 46th overall pick in the Draft out of Arizona State. But his ascent didn’t go according to plan.

After posting a 5.29 ERA in Low-A ball, Blair was suspended in the 2011 playoffs for violating team rules. He climbed through the system the next three years, peaking in Triple-A, but never recorded an ERA better than 4.50. He reported to Spring Training with an injured shoulder in 2015, started the season on the injured list and was released a few weeks later while rehabbing.

He found a gym in Phoenix, EVO UltraFit, and trained there. He worked on the side as a sales representative for Grinds Coffee Pouches. He continued to fight for custody of his son, Beckham, who was born in 2014. He started pitching for Underhill in 2017. No Major League organizations came calling, and Blair said he never forced the issue either.

“I didn't feel ready from a body standpoint, from a mental standpoint, and I always knew that the next time that I tried to come back was probably going to be the last time,” Blair said. “You're 30 years old, and as the whole thing's going, you can see the writing on the wall with how the game's working. So I was just like, I'm not going to try to do this again until I'm ready ready.”

The way he performed after Underhill’s encouragement, tough love and $1,000 offer served as a reminder to Blair: There would never be a perfect time, so why not now?

“I was kind of panicking -- like, ‘I don't know, I haven't even been training to do this,'" he said. "But I was, and you just don't realize it. ... Deep down inside, the whole time, I really wanted to play baseball.”

“He's very stubborn,” Underhill added. “And once he gets confident in something, it's hard to change his mind.”

Blair had a 4.11 ERA in 35 innings for High-A Lake Elsinore from June to August 2019, when the Padres released him. He was 30, nearly seven years older than his average competition. He wasn’t making much money in the low Minors, and he lost his day job when Grinds learned he was back in baseball. His arm still didn’t feel quite right.

Again, he had no idea what would come next. Then came COVID-19.

Oddly, Blair gained a sense of professional certainty during the early stages of the pandemic, when his backyard in Scottsdale became an unlikely baseball training hub for professional players looking for somewhere to work out after Spring Training was shut down.

Blair found a carpenter on Craigslist who built a mound for $660, which he borrowed from his brother. He pitched into a pad hanging off Beckham’s trampoline, with a radar gun set up alongside a screen displaying velocity readings. It was simple, but it worked and eventually grew to be a much bigger operation.

Blair found his ability stacked up well with his bunch of big league workout partners, which inspired confidence in what he was doing. He was particularly buoyed by his friend Danny Hultzen, the second overall pick in the 2011 Draft who finally debuted for the Cubs in 2019.

“I was just like, 'Man, I have the best example. This guy's the hardest worker. He's humble. He's been through all this stuff,’” Blair said. “If he can do it, then I can do it. I'm going to shock everybody.”

Blair had pitched with traditional, over-the-top mechanics his whole life, firing a fastball that hit 97 mph with inconsistent command and offspeed stuff. But the right-hander, a shortstop growing up, would throw from a sidearm angle while fielding ground balls with Hultzen. He’d done it before in games, mostly as a gimmick, but it was always effective. The last part was all that mattered.

“Especially when you know you had a freaking 5 ERA [throwing] overhand for your whole career, it's like, are you going to keep trying to do that?” Blair said. “If you're honest with yourself, you're like, 'I already tried it the other way. I'm not very good. I want to be good.’”

With help from pitching coaches Dom Johnson and Nate Walker, Blair learned that his analytical traits as a sidearmer were intriguing. He might not be able to sell scouts on his velocity readings, but he could sell analysts on his pitch data.

“I was just doing everything I could to try to fill in each little piece of the puzzle that I knew was going to matter at some point," Blair said.

After his backyard renaissance, Blair emailed a bunch of teams to show off his new sidearm profile. He preferred to stay in Arizona, close to Beckham, but his choice came down to the Rays or the Red Sox. Boston offered a two-year Minor League deal with a higher salary and, given Tampa Bay’s depth, a better path to playing time. He signed in early August 2020.

“I was just broke, so I had to go for the higher monthly stipend at that point. And then they gave me a two-year deal, so it had me locked in,” Blair said. “I was just happy to be playing again, to be honest.”

Blair spent the season at the Red Sox alternate training site, pitched well as a sidearm reliever last year and returned to Triple-A for 17 games with Boston’s Worcester affiliate. Then he was a free agent again. Once more, the Rays were interested.

Blair emailed senior director of pro personnel and pro scouting Kevin Ibach, whose staff uncovered hidden pitching gems like Louis Head (selling solar panels) and Dietrich Enns (pitching/coaching in independent ball) last year. Blair held out hope he’d author a similar story with another winning Rays club.

Five hours later, Ibach called with an offer. And on March 3, Blair’s 33rd birthday, he agreed to a Minor League deal.

“I'm like, 'Hell yeah, I'm all in on that,’” Blair said. “I want to play for someone that's going to make me better and give me a chance. … And since I've gotten here, that's kind of really what's happened.”

The Rays used 38 pitchers last year, so everyone who’s taken part in this camp could realistically make an impact this season. That seems especially true for Blair, whose sidearm delivery and sweeping slider stood out among the Rays’ group of non-roster pitchers.

“By design, he lowered his slot -- changed the slot -- tried to sweep the ball. And he's probably as good as anybody in the league at doing it,” Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder said. “He's going to help us this year. It's a really unique profile.”

Whenever Blair completes his long road to The Show, Underhill said he’s made another standing offer: “If you ever make it, I will be there [for] the first game. I will fly as many of these people [as I can] out to see you that have gone through this journey with you.”

It will be a big group. Mostly, Blair wants to see Beckham be a part of it.

They’ve talked a lot this month, with Blair telling Beckham about having lunch with Kevin Kiermaier and his Platinum Glove or asking his son why he wears a chain with his baseball jersey. (“All the big hitters wear chains,” he informed his dad.) Beckham even shared a picture storybook he wrote for Blair.

The last page reads: “If you don’t win, then it wasn’t worth going.”

“I've been wanting to be a baseball player since I can remember, and knowing that I have an 8-year-old to set an example for -- it's kind of hard to know how hard I've worked and not say I've played in the big leagues,” Blair said. “It's like [he says], 'You never played in the big leagues, Dad?' No, bro.

“I want to, though, and I'm going to. That's the driving force behind all this.”