Major League Baseball

The wild ride of Rule 5 draft pick Akil Baddoo's incredible MLB start

Updated Jul. 21, 2021 11:54 a.m. ET

By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

You’re Akil Baddoo.

It’s May 2019, and you’ve just received some bad news: You need Tommy John surgery.

You’ve had a solid start to the year with the Fort Myers Miracle of the High-A Florida State League. As a 20-year-old, you're more than two years younger than the average player in the league.

But now your season is over. Thankfully, you’re not a pitcher, so you are optimistic about returning in time for spring training.

It’s March 2020. You’re back in Fort Myers, hoping to get back in action and continue climbing the minor league ladder one step at a time, likely beginning where you left off in High-A. Then the pandemic hits. You go home to Georgia and wait to see if you’ll get to play baseball at all this season.

The call never comes. The major league season finally begins in July, but minor league baseball is shut down for the year, and you aren’t invited to the Minnesota Twins' alternate site, which means you are left to train at home. You don’t know when – or where – you’ll play your next professional baseball game. Everything is in question.

Then, on Dec. 10, you do get the call – a different kind of call. The Detroit Tigers have selected you in the Rule 5 Draft.

Akil Baddoo, shown here playing for the Detroit Tigers on April 4, was a Rule 5 draftee from the Minnesota Twins organization.

What does that mean?

For each minor league player, depending on age and when he joins the organization, there is a certain point by which the team must add him to the 40-man roster or leave him available to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft. If selected, the new team must keep the player on its active MLB roster for the entire season or return him to the original organization.

Surely, the Twins still believe in your ability – they wouldn’t have selected you 74th overall in the 2017 MLB Draft if they hadn’t. But with your long layoff after surgery and several players ahead of you on the depth chart, it would be challenging to put you on the roster without clearly seeing how you could help the major league team in the near future.

So the Twins left you unprotected – and now the Tigers are going to give you a shot.

It’s far from a guarantee. You still have to make the team and stick on the team – a tall task for someone like you, who has never seen upper-minors pitching, let alone the best pitching in the world.

Still, your big-league dream is suddenly within reach, substantially closer than it was yesterday, when you were a non-roster prospect 18 months removed from your most recent game. Had you not been selected by the Tigers, you’d be entering the 2021 season as a 22-year-old, likely back in A-ball trying to reestablish yourself as a prospect.

Instead, you’re going to major league camp with a completely new organization. How ‘bout that?

It’s March 29. You just hit your fifth home run of spring training, this one against the Yankees. No, not the High-A Yankees affiliate, the last team you played against in the minors. The Yankees Yankees.

A couple of days ago, Detroit manager AJ Hinch informed you that you had indeed made the major league team. You proved you belong over the past month, and now you know for certain you’re going to be a big leaguer with the Detroit Tigers.

You did it. You haven’t even played a regular-season game yet, and you’ve already made it further than most Rule 5 picks do. Congratulations.

It’s April 4. You’re making your MLB debut, batting ninth and playing left field. Here it comes, the first pitch you see as a major leaguer ...

Why wait? You didn’t make your strong impression in spring training by watching pitches go by. As a Rule 5 pick, you had to constantly prove to the team that you were worth keeping around, and you can’t achieve that by being passive.

One pitch, one dinger. Not a bad start. Keep it going.

It’s April 6. Yesterday, you hit a grand slam in the ninth inning, but the game was already out of hand. Grand slams are cool, but winning is cooler.

You step into the box in the 10th inning with the winning run on third base and two outs — against the team that didn’t add you to the 40-man roster.

Winning is cooler, right?

It’s April 7, almost two years removed from your Tommy John surgery. You’re in left field, and the ball is hit down the line by Andrelton Simmons. Simmons has read the scouting report, which says your arm has been below average since you came back from surgery. He takes the turn and hustles to second base.

It appears your arm is just fine.

It’s April 9. No one knows what’s to come of your Major League career after this spectacular start, but that doesn’t matter. You’ve got everyone’s attention, and they can’t wait to see what you do next. You’re Akil Baddoo.

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in Maryland but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter at @j_shusterman_.