From AA to the Big Leagues
Blue Jays call up Alford inserted into starting lineup
As New Hampshire Fisher Cats outfielder Anthony Alford stepped off the team bus in Reading, Pa. on Thursday night, his manager Gary Allenson pulled him aside and told him he was being promoted.
“I thought he was saying I was going to triple-A and I’m like, ‘OK, I’m going to Buffalo,’ ” Alford said. “But he said, ‘No, you’re going to meet the team in Baltimore. You’re going to (the Blue Jays). It was really exciting for me. Still feels like I’m dreaming.”
And to make the dream of making his Major League debut even more unreal, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons threw Alford right in the starting lineup against the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards on Friday night.
“Yeah, why not?” Gibbons said. “He’s one of our top dogs, family will be here, I think it’s perfect.”
Before Friday’s game, the Columbia, Miss., native had never played higher than double-A. Alford has certainly been one of the organization’s top dogs this season, hitting .325 with three home runs and nine stolen bases in 33 games with the Fisher Cats. Baseball America recently bumped him to No. 34 on its list of the league’s top-100 prospects.
And what was even more exciting for Alford is that he gets to play with one of his best friends, outfielder Dwight Smith Jr., who was promoted from Buffalo on Thursday and made his Major League debut for Toronto in Atlanta.
“It’s cool he’s here with his best buddy, too, Smitty, you can’t separate those guys,” Gibbons said.
Alford admitted he was operating on practically no sleep Friday. After being told he was heading to the Bigs, the laid-back former U.S. university football star sat in the lobby of the team hotel in Reading with a bunch of his Fisher Cat teammates.
“Everyone was excited for me,” he said. “There was about 20 of us sitting in the hallway late (Thursday) night, taking in the moment. I think they were just as excited as I was. And my soon to be brotherin-law, who’s my roommate (outfielder Jonathan Davis), he was pretty much in tears when I told him. We sat in the hallway for 3045 minutes just enjoying that moment and I’m glad I got to spend that moment with those guys.”
Alford, 22, was welcomed by his new Jays teammates as he walked through the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards, still in shock that he made it after experiencing a difficult 2016 season when he suffered a number of injuries, including a serious concussion he suffered in June after colliding with a teammate.
Alford said one of the best pieces of advice he received upon his promotion was from Jays star Josh Donaldson, who is on rehab assignment in Dunedin (right calf ).
“He was just telling me to go out (and remember that) it’s pretty much the same game and just go out there and have fun and expect greatness out of myself and don’t expect anything else,” he said.