TORONTO — If you’re peeling around the great state of Texas, and you want to get to Corpus Christi from Houston to see the coast or maybe the colossal aircraft carriers that dock there, you’re going to take U.S. Route 59. About halfway through the four-hour journey south you’ll pass a pocket-sized town that looks just like the ones before it and the ones after it. “You see it from the highway,” says Glenn Sparkman, Toronto Blue Jays Rule 5 pick. “And then you’re through it. It’s real quick.”
That little town is named Ganado, and it’s where Sparkman spent the first two decades of his life, just one of the 1,915 people who call it home. His class at Ganado High School topped out at 62, the biggest the school’s ever graduated. They had enough ballplayers to form a team, but not a very efficient one, as Sparkman would sometimes switch between shortstop and the mound during games. No one has ever reached the majors out of Ganado, and when he went undrafted in his senior year, Sparkman certainly didn’t think he would be the first. He committed to Texas A&M Corpus Christi to play a bit of ball and, more importantly, pursue a major to become a wildlife biologist.
Well, here Sparkman is today, standing in the Blue Jays clubhouse at the Rogers Centre, a coliseum of a ballpark that could fit Ganado’s entire population behind home plate with room to spare. As a Rule 5 pick, Sparkman will report to spring training this February with an exceptionally demanding task in front of him: pitch well enough to make the big league team, or go back to the minors in another organization.
That’s the scenario the Blue Jays presented Sparkman with after selecting him from the Kansas City Royals, an organization in which he posted a 5.22 ERA over 60.1 innings last year across four different levels. Those 60 innings were Sparkman’s first since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015, an operation that cost him 14 months of his young career.
Before that, he had worked his way up to double-A as a 23-year-old after a pair of excellent seasons in rookie ball and high-A. The gamble the Blue Jays are taking is that Sparkman will rediscover that form now that his uneasy post-surgery outings are behind him. If he does, he could be this season’s Joe Biagini, a 2016 Rule 5 pick who became one of Toronto’s most trusted relievers, earning high-leverage innings during the Blue Jays’ 2016 post-season run. If Sparkman doesn’t, he’s all but certainly heading back to the Royals organization.
Rule 5 selection Joe Biagini became one of John Gibbons’ top relievers in 2016.
What has encouraged the Blue Jays is Sparkman’s incredible peripherals. He’s struck out 250 while walking only 54 across his 238 minor-league innings, a sign of a pitcher who attacks the zone rather than nibbling.
“He has some pretty interesting tools,” says Blue Jays director of player development Gil Kim. “Whenever you can add pitchers to your system or to the major-league roster who fill up the zone and throw strikes, it’s definitely a plus. The ability to throw strikes and to command your fastball is so important at every level of the game.”
Sparkman certainly does that, with a fastball that sits 92-94 mph out of the bullpen, and has touched 96. He also throws a change-up that he uses to keep hitters off his fastball and a slider that he likes to throw as an out pitch. Sparkman rounds out his arsenal with a curveball that gives hitters one more thing to think about and doesn’t let them sit on his slider.
It’s a strong repertoire, but the Blue Jays believe he has plenty of room to grow — perhaps more than some of his fellow 24-year-old prospects because Sparkman didn’t start truly pitching until after high school. He was primarily a shortstop growing up and didn’t actually work at the craft of pitching or learn how to properly throw off a mound until he walked on to the baseball team at Wharton County Junior College, delaying that wildlife biology pursuit for another day.
After showcasing at a Houston Astros tryout in The Woodlands, a scout put him in contact with a coach at Wharton County, who saw some upside in Sparkman’s stuff, which only sat at 84-86 mph at the time. As a red-shirted freshman, Sparkman began a dedicated conditioning program, which slowly inched his velocity up and up and up. A couple years later, scouts who had come to Wharton County to watch other players were seeking Sparkman out after games, trying to get a feel for a kid no one had heard of. That led to Sparkman being selected in the 20th round of the 2013 draft by the Royals, and eventually led him to Toronto four years later.
“In high school I threw maybe 20 innings,” Sparkman says. “So, as a shortstop, you don’t’ really do a lot of that arm care. You’re thinking about everything else. But once I really started focusing on my arm and proper stretching, I feel like that really helped me progress.”
If one thing’s clear about Sparkman, it’s that emotions won’t be an issue. He’s exceptionally relaxed, both on the mound and off, and doesn’t even seem to be truly aware of the pressure he’ll be under to make the Blue Jays this spring. He says he’s heard of Biagini but wasn’t sure he was a fellow Rule 5 pick. He isn’t a Twitter user, and wasn’t aware he was selected in the Rule 5 Draft until a friend texted him congratulations. During his down time, he doesn’t even watch sports.
“I don’t keep up with baseball very much,” Sparkman says. “When I got selected I was getting calls from my buddies, and I was like, ‘what are you talking about?’”
You could argue that this kind of ultra-mellow, somewhat aloof temperament makes a ballplayer more likely to succeed as a Rule 5 pick. It certainly worked for Biagini, who is one of the most peculiar personalities in the game. Of course, the odds will be stacked against Sparkman this spring, with plenty of veteran talent competing for seven or eight bullpen spots. But if he impresses enough to earn a trip north with the Blue Jays, Sparkman could just put Ganado on the map.
“It’s got to be difficult to be a Rule 5 guy. Walking into a new organization and all the challenges associated with it,” Kim says. “But the more you can get away from outside factors and barriers that might impede you from your focus and your goals, probably the better your results will be. And what we’ve learned about him so far is he’s a business-first, strong work ethic, strong professional, confident young man. We’re definitely very excited to see what we have there.”