Before Arkansas Travelers right fielder Kyle Waldrop hit a walkoff home run Tuesday night, he stepped into the batter's box with a simple approach.
In seasons past, Waldrop might have let the moment weigh on him like a barbell -- on one side, the need for a late-game hit; on the other, the hope of making it to the majors. But in his first season with the Travs after playing out his six-year minor league contract at every level of the Cincinnati Reds' farm system, the Seattle Mariners' No. 29 prospect according to MLB.com now applies his father's saying: "Don't try to make things happen. Just let it happen."
Waldrop's climb to his first major league at-bat took five years.
The Reds drafted Waldrop in the 12th round of the 2010 MLB first-year amateur draft out of Riverdale High School in Fort Myers, Fla. By 2014, Waldrop was the Reds' Minor League Hitter of the Year and one of the organization's selections to play in the Arizona Fall League -- a separate league where six teams are shared by all MLB teams to test their best minor league prospects against others. Nearly 60 percent of all AFL players make it to the majors, and Waldrop was on his way.
"It was just one of those years where I started hot and stayed hot," said Waldrop, 25, who had a .338 batting average and 14 home runs across the Reds' Class A and Class AA teams during the 2014 season.
Waldrop ascended to Class AAA Louisville by June 2015, where he hit .201 in 21 games before the Reds called him up on the July 31 trade deadline. A roster spot had opened when the team traded starting pitcher Mike Leake to the San Francisco Giants, and Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty and Manager Bryan Price decided to give their struggling prospect a taste of the big leagues.
"They were straight up with me," said Waldrop, who struck out in his only at-bat against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Aug. 2. " 'Hey, it's going to be two maybe four days, and just go back to Triple-A and try and finish up strong.' And hopefully I would have more opportunities like that. But I didn't do what I needed to do in Triple-A that year, and I didn't get a September call-up that year."
Waldrop finished his 2015 Class AAA season with a .185 batting average -- his lowest average since his rookie season.
"I needed to be a little more mature," Waldrop said. "I kind of got caught up too much thinking about the big leagues vs. taking care of what I needed to do there. So, I was always just thinking that, and I needed to worry more about being in the moment."
Waldrop gained a mentor that December when Reds All-Star right fielder Jay Bruce took Waldrop and his wife to dinner during Cincinnati's Redsfest -- an offseason festival where Reds coaches and players interact with fans. Waldrop said he and Bruce -- who also had been a star left-handed outfielder drafted out of high school -- "hit it off right away." The two kept in touch during the 2016 season.
"I wanted to drive in more runs, and I talked to him a lot about what his thought process was with runners in scoring position and stuff like that," said Waldrop, who was called up to the Reds from Class AAA Louisville five times in 2016. "I was kind of amazed how simple it was. He said, 'You don't treat anything different.' Ever since then, I've been, 'You know, that kind of makes a lot of sense.' So, I started to try and simplify everything."
Bruce was traded to the New York Mets on Aug. 1, but Waldrop had learned to also simplify the way he viewed his career. The 2016 season was Waldrop's final year of his minor league contract with the Reds, and the organization did not recall him to the majors in September after he hit .227 in 22 at-bats for the Reds earlier that year.
"I pretty much knew my time in Cincinnati was done going into the offseason," Waldrop said.
Waldrop entered free agency, and the Mariners were the only organization to call him personally. Waldrop said their plan was to start him with the Travs so he could work on selecting the right pitches to swing at and getting on base more.
It was a step back, but also a new start.
Waldrop signed a minor league contract with the organization Dec. 20. In 24 games with the Travs before Thursday, Waldrop had his highest batting average (.292) and on-base percentage (.385) since 2014. He was 2 for 3 with 1 RBI and 1 run scored in the Travs' 3-1 victory over Tulsa in the first game of a doubleheader at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock on Thursday.
Waldrop's first climb to the majors took five years, but he said he no longer looks ahead.
"All that stuff is out of your control," Waldrop said. "All I can control is here for the Travelers, and that's what I want to focus on."
Sports on 05/05/2017