As he climbs the rungs of baseball’s minor leagues, Abbotsford’s Jared Mortensen continues to show he belongs.
Mortensen, an Abbotsford Cardinals alum, is throwing for the Montgomery Biscuits in the double-A Southern League, and took home pitcher-of-the-week honours after allowing no runs over his last two starts.
Through five starts for the Biscuits, Mortensen, 26, now has a sterling 1.16 earned run average and hitters are batting just .191 against him.
The successful start of the season marks just another high mark for a player who has had to prove himself at every level of his baseball career.
After starring for the Cardinals in the outfield, Mortensen’s arm saw him moved to the mound and garner scholarships for Mount Olive College in North Carolina and, when that stop didn’t work out, Louisiana State University–Shreveport. He was named his conference’s player of the year during his stint at LSU-Shreveport, but was told he was too short, at 5’11” to be drafted as a pitcher.
But after proving himself for an independent league team, Mortensen signed a seven-year deal with Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays in 2013 and moved to their single-A affiliate, the Charlotte Stone Crabs.
He impressed there, and split 2014 between the Stone Crabs and the Biscuits. This year, he started with the Biscuits, and while his double-A performances last year were a mixed bag, so far in 2015 he’s proven that he can dominate at the level.
There’s still one more step – triple-A ball – between his current club and the Rays, but for Mortensen, major leagues are closer than ever.