Mitch Harris Has Finally Arrived, This Time For Good?
Posted on March 8th, 2012 by Jeff in 2008 MLB draft, Mitch Harris
I write a lot about Mitch Harris, but that’s just because I think it is a great story and he usually pops up around this time of the year. The Cardinals drafted Harris in the 13th round of the 2008 draft knowing full well he was committed to the Navy and their required 5-year service term. Four of those five years have passed and Mitch Harris is finally making his way to Spring Training, but will he stick or he have to serve another year? Let’s take a look at the latest news after the jump.
Mitch Harris will be on a two month break from his deployment starting on March 23rd, which coinicides perfectly with the end of Spring Training. When the team heads north, Harris will undoubtedly stay in town and work in Extended Spring Training and will most likely not see any actual game action.
Harris has twice submitted requests to serve the rest of his service in the Navy Reserves while playing baseball for the Cardinals and doing outreach for the Navy. They used to let athletes out of their five year commitment two years early to the Reserves due to their higher than normal profile. However, the rule changed and Mitch Harris is taking the brunt of that ruling. The Cardinals hoped they had done enough lobbying last year to get Harris out of his required service, but that fell through.
It is still up in the air whether he would be able to continue the full season with the Cardinals, but seeing how all his previous requests have been denied or delayed, he probably does not have his hopes up.
Harris was drafted after college at twenty-two years old and is already twenty-six and could potentially be another year older before he even gets back to professional baseball. He will have certainly missed his chance at being a top prospect in the Cardinals organization. But with the Cardinals more than happy to wait for him, he still will have a chance at becoming a major leaguer and will continue to be a great story along the way.
The good news for the Cardinals is that without his Navy committment, Harris has around a 5th round grade in 2008. Per Kary Booher of the Springfield News-Leader, “Baseball America’s 2008 pre-draft scouting report described him as consistently throwing a low-90s fastball and that he has plus command of three pitches — fastball, slider and change-up.”
It will be interesting to see what the Cardinals have in Harris when he shows up later this month and when he can begin his Cardinals career in earnest.
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Gotta hope the kid can live his dream. What a story!!
Seems like a bad move on the part of the Navy to not let him play and serve in the Reserves. This guarantees that future student-athletes will think twice about going somewhere else for college.
Not as clear cut as you may think. I lived through the Napoleon McCallum and David Robinsons debacles. Letting guys escape or delay their active duty commitment is not great for the moral of those who aren’t allowed to do so.
I agree – but wasn’t Robinson kind of a different case? Wasn’t he too tall for active duty? I guess they could have “anchored” him with a desk job……
I wonder if there couldn’t be some sort of compromise where they still have to honor their committment, but would not be required to do so until their pro career is over. Seems like that could be done.
Good point but there has to be some sort of happy medium on service time. The service academies do reap a public relations benefit when their graduates later go to careers in professional sports.
Yea, I really hadn’t considered the impact on other graduates. That can makes things a bit murkier in determining what the best decision for the Naval Academy is.
Well, he went to the Naval Academy. No student-athletes who go to academies think that they’ll be let out of their commitment in order to turn pro. Moreover, if turning pro were his overriding goal, then he could have transferred before the start of his junior year and played baseball somewhere else.
I assume he also wanted to serve, at least in the reserves. And considering that the Navy has let athletes go in the past, I’m not sure he didn’t expect to be let out early.
My response was to your comment about future student-athletes thinking twice about attending somewhere else. No student-athlete who attends one of the three academies thinks they’re going to get out of their commitment to play in the pros. If going to the pros is the foremost goal, they won’t go to an academy in the first place.
My understanding was that the Navy’s decision to end participation in the Active Service Option program was because of America’s involvement in Iraq and Afganistan. Given that that involvement has changed, I wonder if that that also changes the Navy’s policy about the ASO. I also think graduates of U.S. Military and Air Force academies still receive opt outs under the ASO program.
I think after 2 years you can decide if you want out. If you don’t go then you are locked in for the duration of your assignment.
The ASO program (the Alternative Service Option) allows two years of active duty followed by six years of reserve duty if the officer pursues a private vocation that is a public relations or recruiting benefit to the armed services. It’s not a complete opt out.
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/nas/2012/03/07-22/Navy-grad-making-pitch-for-pro-baseball.html
Adams quick start in spring training is starting to blot out my memories of his mediocre fall league performance. Hopefully is was just a sore knee that was holding him back.
It is fall league…it is consider a sign of weakness to take a walk in the AFL.
So matt Adams posted a triple…Why where you jerks so hush-hush on his blazing speed! :)
Things that are faster than Matt Adams:
1) I really don’t think there is anything faster than Adams.
Just remember the tortoise won the race…….
With Mitch Harris’s advanced age to start a career let’s hope the Navy let’s him out early to at least give him a couple years to prove himself. Mitch could finish his service time in the off-season. Come on you Navy bigwigs. How about letting the Cardinal faithfull yell out hoorah for a change.
was that one of torty’s ancestors?