TORONTO -- Lives change quickly in baseball.
Saturday night, Paxton Schultz got called into the manager¡¯s office at Triple-A Buffalo and was told to hop in a car Sunday morning. He was headed to Toronto with Dillon Tate, but Schultz was only on the taxi squad for now. When the car rolled up to the border, he told the border agents he was on his way to Toronto to watch Tate pitch.
Ten minutes before that car got to Rogers Centre, Schultz learned he¡¯d actually be activated. Moments later, he was signing his first MLB contract on manager John Schneider¡¯s desk. Hours later, he walked off the mound after 4 1/3 scoreless innings with a piece of MLB history in his pocket.
Schultz¡¯s eight strikeouts tied the MLB record for the most by a pitcher making their debut as a reliever. It¡¯s only been done four other times, most recently by Hayden Wesneski when he was with the Cubs on Sept. 6, 2022.
¡°This is just a surreal feeling,¡± Schultz said, beaming in front of the cameras. ¡°This is something you work towards your whole life. To be out there, perform and have success? It was just unbelievable.¡±
No one expected Schultz to be here, though, at least not on April 20. He was a 14th-round pick who came over from the Brewers in 2021 as the player to be named later for Derek Fisher. He has a career 4.48 ERA in the Minors, and you won¡¯t find his name on any top prospect lists.
¡°I didn¡¯t get a big league camp invite,¡± Schultz said. ¡°I talked to one of our mental performance guys. He pulled me aside because he knew how hard I¡¯d been working in the offseason and things like that. He told me, ¡®Delayed, but not denied.¡¯ I kept that mentality. I knew that if I did what I needed to do and took care of it, this opportunity would come. I¡¯m glad it did.¡±
This day could have gone in a completely different direction. When Easton Lucas got rocked and walked off the mound after 1 2/3 innings, already down 6-0 with runners on the corners behind him, it looked like Schultz would be the one sacrificed to save the rest of the bullpen. It¡¯s a cruel, classic role in big league bullpens, the guy who passes through just long enough to eat a few innings and take the first train back to where he came from.
Instead, Schultz flipped the story completely.
¡°Wow,¡± Schneider said. ¡°For a guy who came up here in a car this morning and signed his contract, that was amazing.¡±
These are the performances Schneider loves to talk about because they get to the heart of one of the biggest challenges coaches and front offices face. No matter how many things you can measure in baseball, how a player will react to the big stage is still this great, unknown variable. We see top prospects crumble at times, but we also see surprises like Schultz, who show up and suddenly look right at home.
Granted, we said the same about Lucas earlier this month when he stepped in and gave the Blue Jays two brilliant outings. That shine has come off, and while the Blue Jays still believe in Lucas -- who was clearly frustrated after his outing and called the performance ¡°unacceptable¡± -- it¡¯s clear that this rotation spot is now a question mark until Max Scherzer returns ¡ which itself is another question mark.
Jake Bloss is lined up with this rotation spot in Triple-A, which presents one option, but what Schultz just did against the Mariners has to leave the Blue Jays considering his spot, even if that comes in a piggyback spot with another reliever like Yariel Rodr¨ªguez.
That¡¯s a conversation Schultz can worry about tomorrow.
Tonight, he¡¯s got a seat on a big league jet bound for Houston. So few players reach the big leagues, but even fewer have their moment. Schultz just had his.