PHOENIX -- Brewers equipment manager Jason Shawger heard the voice from down a hallway and knew exactly who it was. So did Mike Vassallo, the club’s longtime senior director of media relations. They popped their heads around a corner for a look at the prospect with the voice -- and the swing -- they know well.
It wasn’t too long ago that Shawger and Vassallo dodged rolled-up socks rocketing off the bat of Prince Fielder’s young sons during batting practice in the middle of the Brewers clubhouse. Now Jadyn Fielder, the older of the two brothers, is all grown up, a second baseman going into his first season in Milwaukee’s Minor League system after signing last summer as an undrafted free agent.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Jadyn, 20. “Since I was little I’ve always wanted to play for the Brewers. I’m just blessed that it’s really happening.”
If he makes it all the way someday, he would not be the first son or grandson of a Major Leaguer -- Jadyn is both -- to play for the Brewers. The very first player to throw a pitch for the Brewers, Lew Krausse, was the son of a big leaguer. So were Mike Hegan, Terry Francona, Jaime Navarro, Ben Grieve, Tony Gwynn Jr., Tim Dillard, Travis Shaw and Hoby Milner. Current Brewers infielder Brice Turang’s dad played in the big leagues.
But Jadyn Fielder’s father not only played for the Brewers, he became a franchise icon. Prince was drafted seventh overall by the Brewers in 2002, broke into the big leagues in ‘05 less than a year after Jadyn was born, and hit 230 home runs for the Brewers over parts of seven seasons. As soon as Jadyn and younger brother Haven could walk, the boys were regulars in a clubhouse populated by fellow dads like Rickie Weeks, Corey Hart, Yovani Gallardo and Mike Cameron. Weeks, now the Brewers’ associate manager, is Jadyn’s godfather.
“[Jadyn] was always around,” Prince Fielder said. “I always talked baseball with him. I watched my videos with him to see what I was doing wrong. I asked him to help me. He’s always been in it.
"I think when you’re an athlete and you had a dad who played, that’s one thing. But I think he looks at it as like if his dad was a lawyer and he became a lawyer. He doesn’t see it as pressure. It’s just, ‘This is what my family does. It’s a family business.’”
It’s been that way for the Fielders for a long time. Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan goes back so far with the organization that he remembers working at 16 years old in the visiting clubhouse at County Stadium when Cecil Fielder was with the Tigers. Flanagan wound up being gifted a pair of Cecil’s turf shoes.
Flanagan had risen to assistant scouting director by the time the Brewers drafted Prince, and remembers his own kids playing with the Fielder boys on the back fields of the Brewers’ Arizona complex. Now Flanagan is one of the organization’s top player development officials, offering an occasional view of how growing up in a Major League clubhouse can benefit a prospect beginning the grind of professional baseball.
“Other people may be in awe of certain things,” Flanagan said, “but for them, they can have the ability to focus on what they need to do, and not get distracted by the stuff that’s different from high school or college ball.”
Prince knows well the pros and pitfalls of big league bloodlines. He remembers getting more grief from parents, since they figured Prince was playing ahead of their sons only because his dad was former Major League slugger Cecil Fielder. But Jadyn seems to see it only as a blessing, according to Prince, who said “it’s like a video game” watching his son begin his own pro career. He laughs when he hears Jadyn do interviews and prove that he was paying attention to dad’s lessons all those years.
At the same time, Jadyn is forging his own path.
“My dad, my grandpa, we all kind of know I’m different from them,” Jadyn Fielder said. “I’m not the 250-pound-plus -- I’m not going to say the weight. I’m not that big of a guy. We all understand I’m definitely going to have a different path from them, but I can’t change whatever anyone else is thinking. I love my grandpa and my dad, so I’m fine with being embraced in that type of setting. I don’t mind it.”
Asked to identify his own strengths as a ballplayer, Jadyn said, “I like getting on base a lot. I definitely have some power, but I like to get on base and make contact, drive the ball to the gaps, stuff like that.”
He got another chance to do that on Wednesday. Jadyn has been playing Spring Training games with the Single-A Carolina club, though there’s a chance his pro career begins this summer in the Arizona Complex League.
“My dad always told me you never know when your last day playing baseball is,” he said. “So every game to me is like the World Series, almost. I’m just happy to be playing the game that I love. It doesn’t matter to me where it’s at.”