ASHBY TO PULL FOR NEPHEW TODAY
Aaron Ashby celebrated his 24th birthday on Tuesday at brunch with family, including the uncle who had something to do with erecting the park he’ll pitch at this afternoon.
No, not technically, but maybe Petco Park doesn’t get built if the Padres don’t go to the World Series in 1998, the year Andy Ashby won 17 games.
Not that Aaron Ashby — born in the early months of that 1998 run and only 6 years old when Andy Ashby pitched his only game at Petco Park in 2004 — has much recollection of his uncle’s career.
It was influential nonetheless.
Of course it was.
“I have faint memories of his career,” Aaron Ashby said. “Like sitting on the couch with my dad and my brother and my dad says, ‘Hey, that’s your uncle on TV. He plays baseball.’ ”
He added: “That’s how I came to want to play baseball. … When someone that close to you has done it, it just feels all that more attainable.”
Aaron Ashby began the season ranked No. 1 in the Brewers system and No. 37 in Baseball America’s top-100 prospect rankings. He threw 312⁄3 innings last year (4.55 ERA) and has a 3.49 ERA over 281⁄3 innings
this year, mostly out of the Brewers’ bullpen. Today’s start is his fourth of the season for a Brewers team that lost Freddy Peralta to what’s expected to be a lengthy injury, meaning this could be Aaron Ashby’s opportunity to really stretch his legs in the rotation.
He throws a mid-90s fastball, two breaking balls, a sinker and a change-up, stuff that his uncle thought would play from the moment he saw Aaron step onto the mound in high school.
“I told my brother Curtis, his dad, this kid can do this,” Andy Ashby said by phone
Tuesday afternoon. “He’s got it. You can just see it with some kids and he wanted it. Here we are a few years later and he’s pitching at Petco Park.”
Aaron Ashby’s path included following his uncle’s footsteps at Crowder College in Neosho, Mo.
Aaron Ashby was drafted in the fourth round in 2018. His uncle, however, forged his path to the majors as an undrafted free agent, signing with the Phillies in 1986 before getting plucked by the Rockies in the 1992 expansion draft and ultimately traded to San Diego in 1993.
Andy Ashby went on to pitch 14 years in the majors, including parts of six more seasons after the Padres’ World Series run. After three years with the Dodgers, he signed with the Padres in 2004 — the year Petco Park opened — and appeared in one game on the mound his nephew will step onto today.
He'll be seated with Aaron’s parents behind home plate in seats gifted to the family by Trevor Hoffman, among others, but Andy Ashby’s allegiances will certainly shift for at least a game.
“Oh, I’m definitely rooting for my nephew, but I still love the Padres,” Andy Ashby said. “(On Wednesday), I’ll wish the Padres ‘medium’ luck … but it’s going to be a challenge for him. He’s coming into a time when they are playing really well so he’ll have to make some pitches.
“But it’s special time. I still can’t believe it. To see him on that mound will be pretty cool. I might shed a tear.”
Tatis still not swinging
While Fernando Tatis Jr. still continues to take ground balls, run the bases and work on his conditioning, the results of the latest scan of his surgically repaired wrist has not yet shown enough progress to clear him to hold a bat.
“We’re not quite there yet,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “… Hopefully sooner than later.”
To date, the Padres have been getting imaging of Tatis’ wrist every couple weeks, Melvin said, but “I’m not sure it would take that long for the next one.”
The Padres have been targeting Tatis’ return toward the end of June, depending on where his timing is after he’s able to start swinging.
Beaty starts rehab
Matt Beaty began a rehab assignment on Tuesday with Triple-A El Paso, with Melvin acknowledging the length of his stay in the minors could be largely result driven.
Beaty was hitting .108/ .175/.189 over 17 games when he injured his left shoulder while attempting a diving catch in right field on May 7.
“When we got him here, I’m not sure it was 100 percent healthy then,” Melvin said. “And then he had a couple events that kind of set him back. He was doing some things mechanically to try to swing around the issue that he had and then when he (dived) for that ball, it set him way back. So we want to make sure he gets some atbats, that he’s really comfortable with his mechanics and we’ll see where each day goes.”