Neil Devlin "Catching Up" with Former Cherry Creek Grad Griffin Jax

Come fly with Griffin Jax.

Better yet, try to keep up with him.

The former star at Cherry Creek High School in Greenwood Village soon will head to the Arizona Fall League for the Minnesota Twins, but is setting one of the most unusual, complicated and demanding paths to try and place himself in the major leagues.

Try and follow him his love and pursuit of the game … Jax and the prep Bruins won Colorado’s Class 5A Championship Series when he was a junior in 2012 before falling in the 2013 semifinals. It was about three weeks before he was to report for six weeks of basic training at the Air Force Academy.

He would be there for four years and played baseball with the Falcons for three, and very well at that. As a junior, Jax was Mountain West Conference Co-Pitcher of the Year; rated a top-100 prospect by at least five publications; and 9-2 with a 2.05 earned-run average. He pitched 105.2 innings, the third-most in a season for the Falcons and led the conference in ERA, innings pitched, completed games (six) and shutouts.

Shortly after the season, he was chosen by the Twins in the third round, No. 93 overall, in the Major League Draft. 

At the time, he said, “the understanding was I would be able to commission for the Reserves instead of active duty.” So he signed with the Twins and was sent to Elizabethton, Tenn., a Rookie affiliate in the Appalachian League. Jax appeared in four games as a reliever and was 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA in 8.2 innings.

In returning to the Academy late in 2016, he was informed he was ineligible to play for the Falcons because he had signed with the Twins. So he worked toward graduating into the following spring. “By mid-to-late April,” he said, “I didn’t have any expectations.” He was prepared to give the Air Force two years of active duty.

However, “luckily,” he added, “I had signed that contract with the Twins.”

After graduation at the Academy, Jax had 60 days of break “and I used it to play baseball,” he said.

He reported to the Minnesota spring-training complex in Fort Myers, Fla. The Twins first sent him to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in playing for multiple teams. He appeared in 10 games, all as a starter, and had an ERA less than 3.00.

In returning to the Air Force, he was given his first assigned duty, at, of all places, Cape Canaveral.

“My job was project manager, working with contractors,” Jax said. “Boeing, Lockheed Martin, companies like that … sending up space shuttles and satellites. It was a pretty cool job for a 23-year-old right out of college.”

“But my heart was still with baseball.”

Right before the past Christmas, Air Force coaches informed him of a program it endorsed that allows world-class athletes to compete while representing the military branch.

“Since baseball was put back into the Olympic, I was able to apply for it,” he said in noting the 2020 Games will have it. “So around Jan. 1, I applied for it. I didn’t hear until mid-April, but I was selected.”

Tryouts will be in 2019.

 “It might be cool to be the only active military member on the team,” he said.

He’s also trying to become the first AFA player to make it to the majors. Jax played High-A ball in Fort Myers the past summer, going only 3-4,  but having an ERA of less than 4.00 in garnering 87.2 innings.

The Arizona Fall League will last seven weeks and he’s not being paid by the Twins, which he said is another hurdle to clear.

The son of a former NFL linebacker, Garth Jax, who played for Dallas and Arizona after briefly being a teammate at Florida State with Deion Sanders, has no complaints about what’s in front of him.

“It has been crazy getting approval to play baseball again,” Griffin jax said. But the military has been very supportive.”