Brett Phillips Is Spreading The Good Baseball Vibes At The Winter Meetings
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How did Brett Phillips describe the arc of his 13-year professional baseball career?
There are so many things I wanted to talk to you about. First of all, as I told you before, when you were on the podcast, you were very nice to give us some words for the book. You represent all the good things in the game, always have represented all the good things in the game. and you've also had, like, such a journey. Like, even in the last couple years, it never ends, right? The journey never ends, and we're sitting here at the Winter Meetings, and the journey continues.
Man, it's just been an absolute blessing of a career. I look back being drafted in 2012, you know, 13 years ago, and putting together parts of seven years in the big leagues, and, you know, 13 years total of professional baseball. Man, the people I've ran into like yourself and the coaches and teammates, it's amazing. I've had the opportunity to play in Japan, Taiwan, Venezuela, Mexico, everywhere in the United States, 10 plus minor league teams, six major league teams. And it just continues to, doors continue to open. And obviously I give a lot of thanks, all the thanks to God and my appreciation. But man, to my point, yes, the journey has been long. But at the same time, I look back and it's gone by in a flash because it's been so freaking fun, man.
Well, that's the thing is that Even so, you know, I do want to talk about, we're at the winter meetings right now, and I want to talk to you about, because you're like going into this eyes wide open. Yeah. And there's a lot to soak in. There's a lot to digest. And like you said, this is the latest part of your path. But for you, when you're going through the end, like when you go, you tried to be a pitcher, right? Correct.
Okay. For a year.
All right. How did that, I didn't talk to you. How did that go? Let's talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So how did that go? So May of 24, I'm in Charlotte, AAA with the White Sox. I get released in early May and no one calls to pick me up. Usually in the past it would be like, oh, we got a spot in AAA for you. I saw the writing on the wall and I was at peace with it. but I wasn't quite ready to transition out of playing because I had always had in the back of my pocket, in the back of my mind, I have a great arm, and I wanted to try and pitch just to see.
And you had pitched in major league games.
I had pitched in major league games. Obviously, it was for fun, and I was lobbing it. This was going to be a lot different. So I talked to my wife and she's like, yeah, of course, I want you to leave all your cards on the table so when we say it's done, it's done, we can move forward and be at peace. Great. So I started building up in the summer of 24 and it was three months and I was like, all right, I feel comfortable and confident to bring this to live game action. So I get invited to the NBC World Series, a team out of Texas. And it's in Wichita. And it's a college summer tournament, but you can play if you're not under any professional contract. So I go out there for an inning. I'm 95-97. And I strike out three people in a row.
And it was awesome. I was just like, wow, this is so fun, man. The Yankees call the next morning and end up signing me. Yeah. And send me down to Tampa, get me hooked up on all their sensors, mo-caps, see what it looks like. It looked great, felt great. But unfortunately, being 30 years old and there's a lot of wear and tear in my body, I quickly declined with the workload on my arm. I ended up tearing my labrum. Oh. I didn't say anything. I just tried to fight through it. It was at the end of the season, so I was able to manage. I go through last offseason trying to work up. to being prepared for a spring training. I ended up going down to Campeche, Mexico, the Campeche Piratas, and they gave me an opportunity to make a team out of spring.
I'm there for a month, I get released. I go to Cleburne, the Railroaders, which is in the American Association League, and I'm there for a week, it's their spring training now, and I get released. Kane County, Cougars, George Sammis, who's a legend. Yeah. He calls me and he's like, what are you trying to do?
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did Brett Phillips describe the arc of his 13-year professional baseball career?
0:00–6:42
2
Why did Brett attempt a conversion to pitching and what happened during his first tryouts?
6:42–12:29
3
What injuries and setbacks led Brett to reconsider continuing as a player?
12:29–16:25
4
How did Brett transition from player to hitting coach in independent ball?
16:25–22:23
Speakers
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