Pitching prospect Wojciechowski gained perspective from his childhood.
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Asher Wojciechowski, or “Wojo” for short, already owes a small something to the city of Houston. It’s the town where his parents met.
Wojciechowski’s father, Randy, moved to the city in 1981 trying to find work, which took all of one day.
He soon scooped up his wife, Asher’s mother, Carol, and the growing family packed up for Pensacola, Fla., the city where Asher was born.
That was the first of many moves for the Wojciechowskis, some more trying for Asher and older sister Haleigh than others. They dedicated themselves to mission work.
Asher, a 6-4 righthander, lived in Romania for three years as a child. He went to military school and lived a disciplined life at The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina from which about onethird of the students enlist.
“I’ve seen a lot of the world,” Asher Wojciechowski said. “I definitely know there’s more to life than just playing baseball.”
For now, the 25-year-old is focused on winning a job in the Astros’ rotation.
A face in many crowds
Between Class AA and Class AAA last year, his first full season in the Astros’ system, he went 11-8 with a 3.32 ERA. Wojciechowski originally was drafted by the Blue Jays at No. 41 overall in 2010 and came to the Astros in the 2012 J.A. Happ trade.
“It’s a pretty decent list,” general manager Jeff Luhnow said of his rotation candidates. “Wojo had a great year at Triple-A.”
It would’ve been pretty easy for Asher to get lost in the crowd years ago, jumping between schools and countries. But baseball was always there from the beginning.
“I know Asher gets tired of hearing this,” his father said, “(but) his first two words were ‘Da ball, da Braves. Da ball, Da Braves.’ ”
The Wojciechowskis left Florida in 1993 for a four-month stint in the Dominican Republic when Wojciechowski was about 5 years old. They realized quickly, though, that was not where they wanted to be long-term.
The pastor who invited the family to the Dominican then asked them to come to Michigan, so they took off again in 1994.
Wojciechowski’s Little League team dominated. He made friends. The family got involved with Children to Love, an organization that made trips to Romania. By 1998, Randy Wojciechowski felt he was summoned to the European country.
He took work in a staterun orphanage. Mission teams shuttling supplies stayed at their home in Bucharest.
Have game, will travel
But an upset Asher had to give up his dog and, the family believed, baseball as well.
“That was probably the hardest thing for me, because that was my calling and I felt really bad,” Randy said. “I felt bad that we were going to take him to Romania and that he might not ever play baseball again. We didn’t know how long we’d be there; it might have been the rest of our lives, we just didn’t know.”
The first year wasn’t enjoyable. The second year, Romania became tolerable. By the third year, the family’s last in a country that was still blossoming after a 1989 revolution, they actually felt comfortable.
Wojciechowski played with children in the orphanage. Against the odds, he ended up playing organized baseball, too.
A sanctioned Little League team was founded in Romania, complete with blue jerseys with a white script on front that read “Romania.” He was one of four Americans on the team, Randy recollected, alongside locals who knew only soccer.
“They really didn’t know how to play, so we helped them out,” Asher said. “We used my bats and stuff like that.”
When he was 11, Wojciechowski went to the European feeder tournament of the Little League World Series, not too far from Warsaw, Poland. The winner would go to Williamsport, Pa., for the big tournament.
Romania was far from the winner.
Wojciechowski remembers the team taking just one victory in the competition: over Ukraine.
“We played England,” Wojciechowski said. “England killed us. I think we played an African team; I think we lost to them, too. We weren’t very good, but it was a great experience.”
In 2001, the family went back to Michigan, where Randy became a pastor and Asher went back to more familiar diamonds. He was never the most dominant at that age but was always consistent and one of the best on his team.
Randy hired a coach to help out, and Asher ended up on the same travel ball team on which Derek Jeter once played.
Under the radar
There was one move left for the family to make — to South Carolina when Wojciechowski was in high school.
Realistically, all the jumping around didn’t help Wojciechowski get recruited.
“He never was the hometown boy,” Carol said. “He was always the new kid that had to prove himself over and over.”
Asher wasn’t throwing in the 90-mph range in high school as he does today, but he had a hard slider even then. David Beckley, a recruiter and an assistant coach at The Citadel, saw that as a sign that Wojciechowski would grow.
Asher grew so rapidly in high school that his hips hurt him and classmates dubbed him “the turtle” because he couldn’t run.
“It was summer following his junior year,” Beckley said. “I didn’t know anything about him until I was on the scene in the summer, out there on the recruiting trail. … The first time I saw him he’s throwing like 84, 85 mph. Good slider. I went and asked about him, and they said he just moved in here from Michigan. … In the recruiting business, he was a sleeper.”
Winthrop University was the other serious contender. But Wojciechowski wanted the discipline of military school, even if it meant early wake-ups and some trying times as a freshman, the year that’s known to be the toughest for students at the school.
“It taught me about structure, discipline, leadership, respect, honor, duty,” Wojciechowski said. “It teaches you so much, and when you’re there, it’s not fun, especially your freshman year. Looking back now, I’m glad I went through that. It made me a better man.”
Stars and stripes, finally
The Citadel plays in the Southern Conference, and a dominant showing in the 2009 playoffs led Wojciechowski to a high honor — Team USA. He went 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA in five games for the national team that summer.
That only helped his stock for pro teams.
When he was with the Blue Jays, Asher was asked to drop his arm slot. He complied, but the change wasn’t comfortable and led to a 4.70 ERA in 2011, his first full season of pro ball. With the Astros, he’s back to his old mechanics.
Asher went for an MRI on his right lat on Friday, after he strained the muscle throwing a bullpen on Feb. 1. That MRI was a precaution, though, and he felt he’d be able to resume throwing soon.
Assuming he’s healthy going forward, Wojciechowski is in position to make the big league team out of camp, and if not then, likely some time this year.
He’s not too worried, either way. He got married this offseason, and he’s thinking of ways that he and wife, Alanna, can do mission work in future offseasons.
After befriending orphans in Romania and training again this winter on The Citadel campus — in proximity to folks who eventually might go to war — it’s hard to get wrapped up in 25-man rosters.
“If I don’t make it to the big leagues, that’s just a part of life,” Wojciechowski said. “I’d much rather go out and help people and try to spread the word about the gospel. … There’s more to life than just playing a game.”