Bat luggage and an extra-large suitcase.
In some ways, they’ve been the defining mementos of Trayce Thompson’s transient profession path.
Over 13 years in skilled baseball, the journeyman outfielder has been with 9 franchises; performed for 19 main and minor league groups; been traded, bought or claimed six instances.
On the finish of every revolving stint, two issues often occur:
He packs up his suitcase to maneuver to a brand new metropolis, a brand new clubhouse, a brand new group.
And he stows the previous bat bag in his household’s storage unit, including to a set that now seems like a kaleidoscope of discarded baseball relics.
“It’s a bit of daunting,” he stated, “to see all of the completely different colours.”
Certainly, the spectrum ranges from Chicago White Sox black to Oakland Athletic inexperienced, Arizona Diamondback purple to San Diego Padre brown.
Reflecting again on all of the change just lately, Thompson couldn’t assist however sigh.
“Arising, you all the time suppose you’re gonna be with one workforce,” he conceded. “It’s been a psychological grind.”
However then, he proudly famous, his assortment all the time has featured extra Dodger blue than the rest.
It’s the membership with which, six years in the past, he skilled the height of his profession.
And the workforce that, over the past month, has given him a long-awaited alternative again within the majors.
“I knew I may get to the large leagues and contribute and reestablish myself and be an affect participant,” Thompson stated just lately, now greater than a month faraway from a commerce that introduced him again to Los Angeles, the place he's rising as a midseason shock with a .301 batting common, 4 house runs and 17 RBIs in 30 video games.
“However to do it right here, with a variety of guys I do know, lots of people I’ve spent a variety of time with, I believe the frequent theme is simply particular,” he continued. “It’s one thing I by no means actually thought may occur.”
There was a time Thompson thought he’d be with the Dodgers for the lengthy haul.
A Southland native who attended Santa Margarita Excessive in Orange County, Thompson was drafted by the White Sox within the second spherical in 2009, then traded to the Dodgers after a profitable MLB debut in 2015.
He instantly felt at house.
Thompson made the opening-day roster popping out of spring coaching in 2016. He developed fast bonds in his new clubhouse, even transferring in with Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Alex Wooden.
And through the first half of the following marketing campaign, he flourished as a 25-year-old rookie, posting a .796 on-base-plus-slugging proportion and 13 house runs in his first 73 video games whereas, occassionally, batting as excessive as third within the lineup.
“He carried for us for a month or two,” supervisor Dave Roberts recalled.
On the time, Thompson stated he “felt like I used to be gonna be right here for some time.”
As a substitute, his profession shortly unraveled.
He aggravated a again harm that July. An X-ray just a few weeks later revealed two fractured vertebrae, an harm that introduced his season to an finish.
His time with the Dodgers was on the clock too.
After bouncing between triple A and the large leagues in 2017, batting simply .122 in 27 video games, Thompson was designated for task by the workforce on the finish of spring coaching the subsequent yr, claimed off waivers by the New York Yankees, then once more by the Athletics two days later.
“I didn’t play effectively,” Thompson stated of his first Dodgers stint. “That’s what it comes right down to.”
His subsequent couple years weren’t significantly better: A self-admitted “catastrophe” in 2018, when he batted simply .117 in 51 video games with the A’s and White Sox; a mediocre 2019 season with Cleveland’s triple A affiliate; and a pandemic-shortened 2020 marketing campaign spent completely on the Diamondbacks’ alternate coaching website.
“I simply lived out of 1 huge suitcase,” he stated with a self-deprecating snicker. “Discovered to be environment friendly with my packing.”
Regardless of the setbacks, he didn’t ponder retirement.
“Arising, you all the time suppose you’re gonna be with one workforce. It’s been a psychological grind.”
— Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson
“I all the time knew I used to be succesful,” he stated, “so I all the time noticed a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel.”
However he was additionally conscious his profession was on the brink.
“I needed to dig deep,” he stated. “I didn’t wish to end my profession pondering that I didn’t depart all of it on the market.”
Trayce wasn’t the one member of the Thompson household experiencing adversity on the time.
As he toiled within the minors, making an attempt to rediscover his recreation, his older brother Klay Thompson, the All-Star guard for the Golden State Warriors, was tethered to the bench with a string of great accidents, lacking the entire 2019-20 season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and all of 2020-21 with a with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
Trayce stated Klay got here to him for recommendation about how he had handled the frustration of his again harm and the way he coped with the psychological struggles of a long-term rehab.
Their talks, nevertheless, have been impactful for Trayce too.
“Seeing his psychological power to undergo all that and see the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel, it’s much like what I’ve needed to undergo,” Trayce stated. “Not essentially due to harm, however simply due to efficiency and every thing that’s occurred in my profession.
“I’ve actually checked out him as inspiration. He got here again from two main accidents when lots of people counted him out and didn’t know if he was gonna be who he's or no matter. So I had no excuse however to do every thing I can to get again [to the majors] and reestablish myself.”
For Trayce, that meant doing a “deep dive” on his declining efficiency, making an attempt to pinpoint the place he had gone astray.
There have been lengthy hours spent in entrance of a pc, watching and replaying movies of his swing, and others across the sport he admired. He additionally had many “self talks,” making an attempt to replenish his psyche with “confidence and conviction.”
Once more, Klay supplied some familial motivation.
“My brother is an efficient instance of that, a man who by no means shies away from a second, by no means shies away from a sure shot,” Trayce stated. “He’s a man I study from.”
As Klay returned to the courtroom final fall, occurring to win a fourth NBA title with the Warriors, Trayce ultimately obtained again to the majors for the primary time in three years, incomes a September call-up from the Chicago Cubs final season after hitting 21 house runs through the triple-A season.
“Mentally, I needed to reevaluate myself … and type of discover myself once more,” Thompson stated. “I really feel like these final couple years, actually beginning again in ‘19, has been a journey in the direction of that.”
Two days earlier than he was set to rejoice Klay’s triumphant return within the Warriors championship parade final month, Mychal Thompson sat in a Bay Space lodge room and witnessed his different son’s newest turning level unfold in actual time.
After signing with the Padres this spring and getting launched following simply six MLB video games, Trayce was again within the minors, excelling for the Detroit Tigers’ triple-A affiliate in his newest bid to revive his profession.
“It felt like he was again house. It was his dream to place the Dodger uniform on once more.”
— Mychal Thompson, father of Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson
Throughout Father’s Day afternoon on June 19, in a recreation Mychal was watching dwell on his laptop from his lodge room, Trayce hit a sixth-inning single that raised his season batting common to .299.
Mychal was delighted. Then, he was confused.
Within the seventh inning, Trayce was unexpectedly pulled from the sport.
Oh no, Mychal thought. Did Trayce get damage?
Shortly after, nevertheless, Mychal’s cellphone rang. Trayce was on the opposite finish of the road.
“Hey, Dad,” Trayce stated. “I simply obtained traded.”
The place?
“The Dodgers,” his son excitedly blurted out.
Mychal instantly acknowledged the importance, realizing all too effectively the feelings his son had with the group — the blue keepsakes he’d saved of their storage unit for all these years.
“Each hair on my physique stood up,” the previous Lakes middle recalled just lately. “It felt like he was again house. It was his dream to place the Dodger uniform on once more.”
Mychal added: “It was a solution to my prayers.”
Tracye, in the meantime, has helped reply a number of the Dodgers’ midseason issues.
After they suffered some accidents within the outfield, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman stated the workforce instantly focused the right-handed slugger.
“He made a robust impression when he was right here,” Friedman stated. “He was somebody we watched intently and all the time rooted for.”
And in what has since grow to be his longest big-league stint since 2018, Trayce has flashed his trademark energy — it’s a small pattern dimension, however his .542 slugging proportion is finest on the workforce — and paired sturdy outfield protection with newfound consistency on the plate.
“Having Trayce snug, realizing his environment, I believe that gave him the very best probability to carry out from the get-go,” Roberts stated. “He’s a man you possibly can’t guess in opposition to.”
Trayce’s position for the remainder of the season stays unclear.
Chris Taylor is nearing a return from a foot fracture. The Dodgers reportedly have been out there for an additional bat main as much as the commerce deadline Tuesday.
Nonetheless, for Trayce, there’s been no new journey to the storage unit these days; no indicators he’ll must quickly pack his suitcase once more.
For now, merely being again within the majors — and with the Dodgers, particularly — has been a satisfying first step.
“A number of groups possibly didn’t see that out of me, which is ok,” he stated. “However I all the time knew I used to be able to being right here.”
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