EXERT & EXHALE

DREW ELLIS IS IN SUNNY SCOTTSDALE RIGHT NOW, ON A JOURNEY TO MAKE A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAM. THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES. HE’ S NOT ASKING FOR ANY.

BY STEVE KAUFMAN | PHOTOS BY TONY BENNETT

IN FEBRUARY, Drew Ellis of Jeffersonville, Indiana, got on a plane to Arizona, along with thousands of other people escaping winter snows.

It was the warmer weather and sunshine drawing him there. But he wasn’ t going to sit around a resort pool. He was going there to work. He has a job in Scottsdale, which started in February, with April not far behind.

For the next couple of months, Ellis would be running and exercising, swinging a bat and scooping up infield grounders, throwing and catching. What he really hoped to catch was someone’ s attention.

Ellis works for baseball’ s Arizona Diamondbacks, who had their best season last year since the team of Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and Luis Gonzalez won the 2001 major league championship. The Diamondbacks won 93 games in 2017, third-best in the entire National League, before succumbing to their division rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the post-season.

Ellis wasn’ t in Phoenix while all this was going on. He was in Hillsboro, Oregon, playing for the Hillsboro Hops of the Northwest League, Arizona’ s affiliate in what is called Short Season A. Only the Rookie League is a lower designation.

Hillsboro did the parent club one better, winning its league pennant, beating out the Eugene( Ore.) Emeralds, a Chicago Cubs affiliate; the Boise( Idaho) Hawks, a Colorado Rockies affiliate; and the Salem-Keizer( Ore.) Volcanoes, a San Francisco Giants affiliate, in the league’ s South Division.

Ellis was the Hops’ starting third baseman once he got to Hillsboro, hitting what for him was a disappointing. 227, but getting eight home runs and driving in 23 runs in his 41 games.

“ I played really well for the first 30 or so games, then struggled a bit,” he said.“ My power numbers were good, but my average wasn’ t where I wanted it to be. Probably good to have those struggles early in my career, though, so I know what it takes to overcome them, how to work out of them.”

And now it’ s on to spring training camp. Hillsboro is far from Phoenix, and not just on a line drawn on a map. It’ s the lowest rung on a very high ladder going up through four more minor league levels in the Diamondback organization, all the way to Reno, Nevada, the team’ s Triple A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League.

The highest rung on the ladder, of course, is the ultimate goal – an Arizona uniform. A seat in the D-backs’ dugout. Hearing your name called:“ Batting fifth and playing third base, Drew Ellis!” But first … For this summer, the Jeffersonville youngster has set his sights on an assignment to the Visalia Rawhide of the Advanced A California League. It would be a promotion, all part of the climb.

It’ s a slog. And a numbers game. Most of the ballplayers in the Short Season League will likely never get to the majors. Ellis knows that.

His short season was shorter than most. He wasn’ t drafted until June, in the second round of Major League Baseball’ s 2017 draft, the 44th overall pick. That spring, he had been a key cog in

40 EXTOL: APRIL / MAY 2018