PRO BASEBALL: Port Angeles product Cole Uvila still has shot at big leagues in 2020

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Tuesday’s move to cancel the Minor League Baseball season was something Cole Uvila, a right-handed pitcher in the Texas Rangers organization, saw coming like singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh-inning stretch — unavoidable.

The 2012 Port Angeles High School graduate is a veteran of minor league campaigns with Single A short-season Spokane (2018) and the Low-A Hickory Crawdads and High-A Down East Wood Ducks (both in 2019).

Uvila knows the landscape well and realized there was no viable way for minor league teams, many of which operate on shoestring budgets in normal years and lack the broadcast television contracts of their Major League Baseball partners, to play without fans in the stands.

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And minor leaguers play in smaller ballparks, dress and prepare in smaller clubhouses and generally travel by bus from city to city — a recipe for potentially spreading COVID-19 around wide regions of the country.

Uvila instead was far more affected when he found out he wasn’t going to be part of the Texas Rangers 60-player Summer Camp roster, those who will attend the team’s shortened “spring training” and be eligible to play and travel during the upcoming 60-game MLB season.

“I really thought I had a good shot at making the 60-man roster from what I had heard from my agent and others in the organization,” Uvila said.

“That’s why I came back to Arizona, I wanted to make a big push to make the team.”

Teams want to preserve roster slot flexibility amidst the pandemic, but a specific piece of unyielding terminology likely tripped up his shot. Uvila isn’t on the Rangers’ 40-man roster, so if he were to be injured or struggle with the big club, he would have to be given his outright release from the organization if he was removed from the 60-man roster.

Confusing? Welcome to 2020.

A handful of highly promising Texas prospects did get the call to the show, but Uvila will have to wait for now.

“I was going to head back to Seattle, but a team administrator called the other day and the organization wants me to move into the dorms, train in Arizona and wait in the wings,” Uvila said.

The offer to move into the team’s brand-new Rangers Village, a dormitory and state-of-the-art training facility, appealed to Uvila, who has been hard-pressed to find places to train during quarantine.

“It’s been kind of a struggle to find a weight room or a place to throw,” Uvila said. “Anything consistent is everything these days. And it is a beautiful facility meant to house the entire minor league population.”

Uvila will have his own double suite to himself as only a limited number of players have been invited to train.

“There will be strength coaches and pitching coaches to work with,” Uvila said. “I’m not putting too much into it, it doesn’t mean I’m going to make the team this season, but my agent and I talked about it. If they do want to call me to Arlington [Texas], there won’t be any questions about what I have been up to. They will know exactly what I have done, and if a spot opens up, get him a flight.”

So there’s a slight glimmer of a Uvila call-up and a much more definite answer in regard to where he can train and prepare for spring training in 2021.

S/O to @TEXPlayerDev for putting this together for me! What a first two years it has been! Can’t wait to get back out there and compete again 😅 pic.twitter.com/dzcGkP9tul
— Cole Uvila (@ColeUvila) May 27, 2020

“In theory some of us are the future of the franchise, and I think that’s what this is and that’s why I feel it’s such an exciting opportunity to be included,” Uvila said.

Uvila left the Seattle area for Arizona late this spring after initally returning in March when teams sent the bulk of their minor leaguers away from spring training sites.

He found a turf field in Auburn and was throwing with Brandon Mann, a pitcher who has thrown for the Rangers and for a number of Japanese teams.

Before one session, the pair were accosted by a passerby, who called the police.

“We weren’t even on the field yet and he chewed us out,” Uvila said. “The police showed up, took our side and from then on we had permission to train there.”

Eventually, Uvila realized he needed more structure in his day-to-day work.

“Basically, my training was getting stagnant and every day was turning into Groundhog Day,” Uvila said.

“A friend down here linked me up with a guy, a pitching coach, and I have had a spot to throw.”

A number of pitchers named to MLB 60-man rosters, including former Mariners No. 2 draft pick Danny Hultzen. Hultzen had injuries devour much of his time with Seattle, and he made his MLB debut with the Chicago Cubs last September.

“I got to meet and train with Danny Hultzen, a Mariners legend in the wrong way,” Uvila said. “I can’t say enough about him character wise. I’ve learned a lot down here.”

And Uvila said he is taking COVID-19 seriously.

“Other than coming to train, or going to the grocery store, I’m not going anywhere,” Uvila said. “I’ve had two [negative] COVID tests in the last week as well.”

He keeps his circle small, but is able to spend time with his former Spokane teammate Sean Chandler, also in Arizona to rehab from Tommy John elbow surgery. Chandler will serve as the best man in Uvila’s wedding in 2021.

“I’ve moved around so much in baseball, played at three different schools, and have so many really good friends, but he’s the guy I talk to the most,” Uvila said. “And my fiancee and his girlfriend really hit it off, they talk more than we do.”

He also had a humorous online interaction with the Carolina Mudcats Twitter account.

The Mudcats’ mascot, Muddy, has a four-wheeler like the Mariner Moose and likes to jump the vehicle off the opposition’s bullpen pitching mound.

Uvila and his Down East teammates took minor offense and decided to turn the tables, tossing water balloons at Muddy after every approach.

The Mudcats’ Twitter account posted a photo of Muddy sticking the landing on a mound jump alongside Down East players taking aim with water balloons with “:My Plans” and “:2020” as corresponding captions, a joke at how rough a year it has been.

Uvila replied with “Every single time,” and the Mudcats almost immediately threw together a video that shows Uvila hitting three Mudcats batters during a 2019 game along with the caption “2020 hit us like…”

“They posted that video so fast, I thought they had it edited in advance,” Uvila laughed.

“Three hit batters on four pitches. I did get out of the inning without allowing a run and struck out the side the next inning.”