A pedestrian walks past the logo of the Oakland Ballers in front of their new home at Raimnodi Park in Oakland, Calif., on June 4, 2024. Ballers, the new Independent League baseball team will play their inaugural and first ever home game in the West Oakland ballpark. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Around this time last year, San Jose Giants pitcher Elijah Pleasants took the mound for what he thought could be the final time in his career.
He was playing for the Mahonig Valley Scrappers in the Major League Baseball Draft League, a hybrid Collegiate Summer League, and independent league. As he toed the rubber that day his mind was flooded with emotion.
After originally being drafted in the 36th round of the 2018 MLB Draft out of high school in Tennessee, he opted against signing and instead chose to honor his commitment to play for the University of Tennessee.
His collegiate career was up and down, and after exhausting his eligibility in 2023 he faced an uncertain baseball future.
“I was really sad before the game because I knew it was my last official baseball game that I knew of,” Pleasants said. “I wasn’t going back to school for the first time, and I was just really upset.”
After the 2023 season, Pleasants moved back home, completed his degree and began private pitching lessons, hoping a chance would come his way.
Now, he’s a fixture in the San Jose bullpen, squarely in affiliated baseball and his career has an entirely different trajectory.
All this thanks to a pit stop up Interstate 880 in Oakland.
Not long after the calendar turned to 2024, opportunity came knocking in the form of a brand-new independent baseball team in the Pioneer League, the Oakland Ballers.
At that point, Pleasants was mainly focused on continuing to play, but in the back of his mind, he had an eye toward the future.
“I wanted to get into affiliated ball … that was always my goal,” Pleasants said. “But at that point, it was just a new opportunity first, just to go pitch again. I knew I had a little more to show, and that I could show.”
That eye toward the future was a mindset shared by the Ballers as an organization. Before the team had even played a game, the Ballers billed themselves as a premier destination for players looking to make the jump to affiliated baseball.
It was a lofty expectation to set, considering the new-car smell hadn’t yet worn off of the ball club. Yet, general manager Tyler Petersen said it was the goal from day one.
“We had a pretty good idea that we had the resources, and the platform to create a pretty good opportunity (for players),” Petersen said.
Tangibly, that looked like a coaching staff with a myriad of Major League experience, leveraging Oakland’s location as a major market with a pre-established scouting network, and utilizing data packages put together by the team.
Still, the Ballers had to prove it. Petersen said it was a challenge to get some players to buy into the idea that a team that hadn’t played a game was the best spot for their development.
“We didn’t even have a ballpark, we had no history, we had nothing but a promise,” Petersen said. “You’ve got (other) Indy ball teams that have been around for decades, other Pioneer teams that have been around for the last couple of years that have had success, so how do you sell a team that doesn’t exist?”
It wasn’t a hard sell for Pleasants, who said he was impressed with the Ballers’ presentations. He signed in late February, but his Ballers career would be brief.
He made five appearances, threw 16.2 innings and struck out 23 while only walking four. It was all the San Francisco Giants organization needed to see, and Pleasants’ signing was announced by the Ballers on June 12.
Ballers manager Aaron Miles said it was always clear that Pleasants, who’s listed as 6-foot-5, 200 pounds, had the physical traits to be successful.
“He’s a spectacular athlete,” Miles said. “He had some deficiencies in his game, and we worked on them… He just continued to get better, and fill up the strike zone.”
His pitching coach with San Jose is former San Francisco Giants reliever Dan Runzler. He described Pleasants arm as “elite,” and he isn’t surprised that the right-hander has found quick success.
“Success will always come to guys with an arm like that,” Runzler said. “Coupled with his ability to throw strikes. He’ll continue to be more successful with his coachability and work ethic, because ‘stuff’ like that doesn’t just grow on trees.”
Pleasants was the third player the Ballers helped get to affiliated baseball after Danny Kirwin signed with the Boston Red Sox, and Tyler Davis’s contract was purchased by the Chicago White Sox. Add in Carson Lambert, who had his contract transferred to the Toronto Blue Jays before the team declined to sign him following a medical exam, and you get four players from the Ballers in their inaugural season, with more potentially coming after the season concludes.
Out of the entire 12-team Pioneer League, there have been 12 players signed. More have come through Raimondi Park in West Oakland than any other team, showing the Ballers are doing exactly what they set out to do.
“We want to look for players that are the top-of-the-line players that maybe MLB just missed on,” Miles said. “There’s a reason why they’re in this league, and not in affiliated baseball, and we want to be able to help them get over the hump.”
For Pleasants, it’s been a whirlwind year. As he reflects on his professional journey to this point, he’s grateful for his Pioneer League pit stop.
“I absolutely loved it,” he said of his time with the Ballers. “I was just focused on enjoying every day, and my teammates, and my coaches, and they made it really enjoyable.”
This offseason will be a little different for Pleasants. This time around, he knows his next step. He’s heading to Arizona to represent the Giants in the Arizona Fall League, where the organization hopes he’ll continue to grow.
“His development lies in more repetition, and the Arizona Fall League will be huge to continue that development,” Runzler added. “He’s going to grow with every at-bat against a pro hitter as he continues to understand his arsenal and how it plays.”
Through ten appearances with San Jose, Pleasants’ ERA is 1.78, and he’s struck out 22 batters in 25.1 innings. Although he’s settled into his role, he said his rapid baseball ascension hasn’t quite set in yet.
“Every day I still have to go out there and play again and really show that I belong here,” he said. “I think at the end of this season, when I finally really get to see my family again, I think that’s when it will really hit me.”
Originally published at André Simms, correspondent