Minor leaguer receives call after 11 years
Behind every veteran - for prospect trade is a tale of opportunity, often for a player not included in the deal itself. So it was for Isaac Galloway, an 11year minor leaguer who realized a dream Tuesday, the day of the nonwaiver trade deadline.
Galloway, 28, entered professional baseball as an eighthround pick of the Florida Marlins in 2008, coming from a high school in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The organization has undergone upheaval since then, changing its name (to the Miami Marlins), its ballpark, its ownership and its roster. But still, Galloway remained, climbing the minor-league ladder before stalling with the Class AAA New Orleans Baby Cakes.
Last season, Galloway tore his medial collateral ligament while sliding into the plate, which cost him most of the season. He worried his journey might end in pain.
“That was a scary one,” said
Miami Marlins outfielder Isaac Galloway, shown here in a spring-training game, made his major-league debut Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves after 11 years and 947 games in the minor leagues. Galloway, who has 161 stolen bases in the minors. “Thoughts creep into your mind. ‘I’m older now, I have an injury, and my legs are a big part of my game.’ That was a pretty down time.”
But the Marlins brought Galloway back for a fourth season in New Orleans, and he had played 947 career minor-league games when his manager, Arnie Beyeler, called him Tuesday afternoon.
“He told me there was a possibility of a trade, so I should keep my phone near me,” Galloway said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Beyeler eventually told him to go to the airport, then informed him that the Marlins had traded Cameron Maybin — a righthanded outfielder, like Galloway — to the Seattle Mariners. That meant Galloway was headed to the majors at last to join the Marlins in Atlanta.
Galloway called his parents, waited out a weather delay and flew to Atlanta, where a car service — with the Marlins-Braves game playing on the radio — whisked him to Sun Trust Park. A cart then hustled Galloway through a stadium corridor to the door of the visitors’ locker room, where he hurriedly buttoned up uniform No. 79.
“In an inning and a half,” he said, “I’m in the game.”
After entering for defense in the seventh inning, Galloway came to bat in the ninth, beating out an infield single and clapping his hands as he crossed first base. Galloway said he would give the ball to his grandmother, Olean White. Only one player in team history — Brian Daubach in 1998 — had ever made his debut after playing more games in the minors.
“I cried at different spots in the day; it was so overwhelming and chaotic,” Galloway said. “I think when I got the hit and got to first, I was shaking and I didn’t really know why.”
Galloway made his first Major League start playing left field on Saturday night at Philadelphia.