The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Bronx tale: Baseball as salvation
Shortstop’s dad, an NYPD veteran, saw son’s potential path and gave him a choice.
‘I was friends with some kids who were doing drugs and stuff, some who eventually died from it, but I wasn’t into that. My dad grew up in the projects and was a police officer, so maybe he could see the beginnings of it.’ Andrew Velazquez Angels shortstop who grew up in the Bronx, New York
Andrew Velazquez was a teenager in the Bronx, New York, when he reached a crossroads in life, with one track leading toward a potential future in baseball and the other down a path of possible destruction. If the kid who would grow up to be this year’s Angels shortstop, a diminutive defensive whiz who has transformed the infield with his spectacular play, didn’t see the whole situation clearly at the time, his father did.
Kenneth Velazquez grew up in South Bronx. He spent 20 years in the New York Police Department, working undercover in narcotics during the crack cocaine epidemic and as a detective in the 42nd Precinct near Yankee Stadium.
The summer Andrew turned 14, Kenneth saw his son drifting away from baseball — skipping practices with his youth team, declining to try out for the Gothams, a New York Citybased travel ball program — and toward the temptations the father saw destroy so many lives.
“He wasn’t running in the streets, but he was hanging out with people that he didn’t normally hang out with, or kids who were turning the wrong way,” Kenneth said. “I was a cop. I knew it.
“So I told him, ‘Those kids are no good. You should steer clear of them. But I’m gonna give you the leash. You go and find out what you want to do in your life.’”
A few weeks later, while driving in the family car, Andrew told his father he wanted to play travel ball, “and ever since that day, his effort has been a thousand percent,” Kenneth said. “Once he determined that this is what he wanted to do with his life, it was just nonstop.”
Velazquez carried that work ethic to high school at Fordham Prep and throughout an 11-year professional career that meandered through six organizations and 10 minor league towns, included one brief but memorable stop with his hometown New York Yankees, and finally has gained traction in Anaheim, California.
He spent parts of four seasons, from 2018-21, in the big leagues with Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Baltimore and New York. He lived out his childhood dream by playing 35 games for the Yankees last summer, starting 20 of them at shortstop, the position of his boyhood idol, Derek Jeter.
Now with the Angels, Velazquez is as a big league starter, one of the game’s best defensive shortstops and a son who remains grateful his parents allowed him to choose his destiny.
“I was friends with some kids who were doing drugs and stuff, some who eventually died from it, but I wasn’t into that,” Velazquez, 27, said of those turbulent teenage years. “My dad grew up in the projects and was a police officer, so maybe he could see the beginnings of it.
“As scary as it is for a parent, kudos to them for allowing me to make the decision ... They were kind of like, ‘You want to do that? You’re on your own.’ We were getting close to the point where they maybe had to straighten me out. But I made the right decision.”
The Angels would concur. Velazquez might not be a force at the plate, but he has been a game-changer on defense since being recalled from Triple-a in early April to replace the injured David Fletcher.
Velazquez has made diving stops of grounders and line drives to his left and right. He has started and turned numerous double plays. He has backhanded grounders in the hole and, with his momentum carrying him toward the outfield, made long throws to first. He has range far to his left for grounders and has made strong, acrossthe-body throws to first. He has sprinted into the outfield to catch popups.
In a May 8 win over Washington, Velazquez, stationed on the second base side of the bag, dived up the middle to stop Juan Soto’s bases-loaded grounder, scrambled to his knees to make a 12-foot, aroundthe-back pass to second baseman Tyler Wade for the out, saving a run.
“If this guy starts hitting, nobody’s gonna be able to afford him,” Angels manager Joe Maddon said after that game. “I mean, he’s that good at shortstop.”
Velazquez wasn’t always that good. He grew up fielding grounders on the rockstrewn, patchy grass fields of the Bronx. “He dreaded those fields,” Kenneth Velazquez said. “A guy would hit him 150 to 200 grounders, and I thought he was gonna take his head off. They were all bad hops.”
Those surfaces were an upgrade from the public park across the street from Velazquez’s house in the Morris Park section of the Bronx.
“That had a concrete softball field, and I would be diving on it as a kid,” Andrew said. “We got it anywhere we could.”
Velazquez was athletic and fast as a teenager, with a strong arm and a quick bat, and he improved under the tutelage of trainer Luis Santos and former minor league infielder Rich Almanzar, both natives of the Dominican Republic who worked with New York City prospects. Still, Velazquez didn’t start at Fordham Prep until his junior year and didn’t play shortstop until he was a senior. A standout performance at a tournament in Georgia before his senior year — Velazquez went 14 for 16 and played stellar defense — put him on the radar of scouts and college coaches.
Velazquez turned down a scholarship to Virginia Tech to sign for $200,000 with Arizona, which picked him in the seventh round of the 2012 draft.
A polished prospect, Velazquez wasn’t. There was so much movement in his arms and hands as he fielded grounders in the Arizona rookie league that summer that a Diamondbacks instructor began calling him “Pulpo,” the Spanish word for octopus, Kenneth said.
That was shortened to “Squid,” and the nickname stuck. Those tentacle-like hands and arms have quieted over the years, though.
“He’s always calm, he’s always very relaxed, under control,” first baseman Jared Walsh said. “He never looks jumpy in the field. You watch him, and he lets the ball come to him. He’s super smooth.”
The switch-hitting Velazquez has only recently mixed in a little more offense to go with his slick fielding, raising his average from .131 to .189 since May 9.
Maddon has made it clear that Velazquez’s glove will play no matter how he hits. When Velazquez was batting .130 in early May, Maddon said, “I really don’t care, because the impact he’s had on the game out there has been substantial.”
The security of his first big league starting job won’t change Velazquez’s approach. He’s played in too many minor league games and was released and traded too many times to get comfortable here. He didn’t even make the Angels’ opening-day roster. He just had his car shipped to Southern California a few weeks ago.
“I heard Aaron Judge say something last year, that we’re all fighting for a job every day,” Velazquez said. “That’s the mindset I have. Going up and down enough times will humble you.”