Against All Odds, Andrean Alum Brosseau Breaks into Big Leagues

“A lot of hard work through the years paid off,” beamed  Tampa   Bay  third baseman Mike Brosseau after his major league debut during the Rays’ 8-2 victory over the Athletics in  Oakland on Sunday, June 23.  “It was a special moment,” the Munster, Indiana, native told Fox Sports Sun interviewer Tricia Whitaker.  “I know my family and my friends in the stands were watching.  It was great to hopefully make them proud.”

 

One day earlier, the 25-year-old Brosseau had joined Tampa Bay when the Rays selected his contract from Durham, North Carolina, of the Class AAA International League. 

 

Brosseau followed an unlikely path to the majors.  He spent three years playing shortstop for Hall of Fame coach Dave Pishkur at Andrean High School in Merrillville, Ind.  One of his high school teammates was Sean Manaea, a left-handed pitcher for the Oakland A’s.

 

In 2010, Brosseau’s sophomore season, Andrean went 29-6 and won the IHSAA Class 3A crown.  He knocked in a run in the 59ers’ 6-1 triumph over Jasper in the championship game at Victory Field in Indianapolis.

Weighing around 160 pounds as a high school senior in 2012, the 5-foot-10 Brosseau wasn’t heavily recruited.  He wound up playing for Jacke Healey at OaklandUniversity in Rochester, Michigan.  During four years with the Golden Grizzlies, Brosseau added about 40 more pounds and chalked up impressive statistics. 

 

As a college sophomore in 2014, Brosseau batted .321 and was named first-team shortstop on the All-Horizon League squad.   He led Oakland U. with seven homers in 2015, his junior year.  As a senior in 2016, he batted .354, led the Horizon League in on-base percentage (.456), and ranked second in homers (10) and slugging percentage (571).  With 217 career hits, he became the fifth player in the school’s history to surpass the 200-hit mark. 

All 30 big-league clubs passed on Brosseau in the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft.  “That whole underdog, non-drafted title is gonna follow me throughout my career, and that’s fine,” he told Tricia Whitaker.  “But it does make it a little more special … It’s a dream come true.”

 

The Rays signed Brosseau as a non-drafted free agent in 2016 and assigned him to their rookie Gulf Coast League affiliate.  He saw action with the Bowling Green Hot Rods (low-A Midwest) and the Charlotte Stone Crabs (high-A Florida State) in 2017, and last year with the Montgomery Biscuits (AA Southern). 

 

Brosseau batted .295 in his first three minor league seasons.  Heading into Spring Training this year, he wasn’t on Tampa Bays’ 40-man roster, and he wasn’t listed among the organization’s top prospects. 

 

Assigned to Durham at the beginning of April, Brosseau hit .313 with 14 homers and a league-leading 57 RBI in 66 contests.  The Rays summoned him after third baseman Daniel Robertson went on the injured list with a knee sprain.

 

Brosseau arrived in Oakland on Saturday, June 22, and watched the Rays’ 4-2 loss to the A’s from the bench.  Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash inserted him into the lineup for Sunday’s game, playing third base and batting fifth.  Five of Brosseau’s former college teammates flew to the West Coast for the debut.  “It was great to spend the weekend with them,” he told reporters. 

In the second inning, Brosseau stepped into the batter’s box against veteran Oakland left-hander Brett Anderson.  Brosseau grounded Anderson’s fourth serve to the opposite field for a base hit.  He went 1-for-5 in the contest and flawlessly handled two chances in the field. 

 

“For him to go up there, stay on a ball, it looked like it was a ball or two off the plate and he stayed on it and smoked it to right field,” Cash said after the contest.  “(He) made some nice plays at third base.  It’s really encouraging.”

To commemorate Brosseau’s first big-league hit, Brosseau’s teammates gave him a customary post-game drenching.  “They took me into the shower, and I don’t know what they dumped on me,” Mike told reporters.  “It was a good celebration after a good team win like that.”

Brosseau’s lone regret was that his father and mother didn’t have enough time to travel to Oakland for his first big-league game.  He said his parents, Mike and Bonnie, planned to head from their home in Portage, Ind., to Minneapolis when the Rays open a three-game series with the Twins on Tuesday (June 25).      

 

Michael Dillon Brosseau is the 379^th Indiana native to play Major League Baseball.  He joined Cincinnati utility man Josh VanMeter (Fort Wayne) and Cleveland right-hander Zach Plesac (Crown Point) as the third Hoosier to debut in the big leagues this season.