LOS ANGELES — When American Airlines flight 597 landed at Los Angeles International Airport a few minutes before 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Mitch Walding had a text message. It was from Gabe Kapler, his new manager, who asked: Are you ready? “I’ve been waiting for this moment for my whole life,” Walding typed back. He went to baggage claim at LAX to fetch the suitcase, Phillies duffel bag, and box of bats he had packed before the sun rose. He found the driver dispatched from the car service to take him to Dodger Stadium. He walked into the visitors’ clubhouse, dropped his things, and searched for Kapler’s office because that is what the Phillies tell their farmhands to do first.
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Kapler was inside with Rob Thomson, his bench coach. They discussed strategy for that night’s game, a nondescript 8-2 loss to the Dodgers in which Walding would become the first Phillies hitter in recorded history to strike out four times in his major-league debut.
The 25-year-old infielder knocked on the door.
“A crisp blue suit,” Kapler said. “White shirt. Looked like a big leaguer. Sounded like a big leaguer. He was so excited.”
Walding, on Tuesday night, played in his 684th career minor-league game. He went 1 for 4 with a double and three strikeouts at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown. He went to bed. Across the country, the Phillies made plans for him.
There are hundreds of transactions in a major-league season. Some of them are simple. Some of them are sentimental. Some are heartbreaking. Even ruthless. Some of them involve late-night conference calls and a perturbed girlfriend who wants to know why the phone keeps buzzing and a local seamstress and a starstruck scout.
This is how Mitch Walding went from a minor leaguer to the 19,264th player in major-league history and the Phillies’ starting third baseman in a game at Dodger Stadium in less than 24 hours.
Not long after Pedro Florimón fouled a ball off his right foot, Gabe Kapler knew the diagnosis. One of the team’s athletic trainers relayed the news to the dugout: Florimón’s foot was broken. The valued bench player would miss some time, and he needed to return to Philadelphia for further examination.
These were problems for later. Kapler focused on managing an eventual 6-1 Phillies win. But he began to think during the Tuesday night game about the ramifications.
“It’s more happening behind the scenes,” Kapler said. “Once you see an injury has taken place on the field, all those pieces start in motion. You don’t know, right? He could have hit a ball off his toe. He could ice it and be good to go tomorrow. But you start to ask: Who’s the best option to replace him if he is [going on the] DL?”
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Some of that is natural to Kapler, who for the last three seasons experienced this situation from a different perspective as the Dodgers’ farm director.
“I’m always thinking about the next player in line,” Kapler said. “I’m really invested in what’s happening at the Triple-A level. I know who the players are who are performing. We have some exposure to a lot of them from camp. I’m always thinking, ‘If something happens, this would be a good guy.’ So I’ve been watching Mitch’s progress since the beginning of the season. This would be a really good guy if we ever get in a bind.”
By the time the game ended, it was past 12:30 a.m. in Philadelphia. No one from the Phillies’ baseball operations department had made the trip to Los Angeles, but team officials had outlined possible scenarios during the game. Kapler, after meeting with reporters, called general manager Matt Klentak. “We talked through the possibilities,” Kapler said. “Usually, there’s been a lot of work done already. And then we collaboratively make a decision like we do [with] many things around here. We were fully aligned on this one.” There were no healthy infielders on the current 40-man roster. Walding, a former fifth-round pick who had re-signed last winter as a minor-league free agent, had applied a more patient approach with an improved power stroke. He was hitting .271/.379/.484 at Triple A. He was the best option.
Phil Sheridan, the team’s clubhouse and equipment manager, carries blank Phillies jerseys and lettering on every road trip. Every player in spring training is measured, so Sheridan at least had that. Sometimes, if a player is on the 40-man roster or is a possible call-up, he will have nameplates pre-made. Then, just a number is needed. But Walding’s had to be created from scratch. So Sheridan prepared the jersey and left it with a clubhouse attendant, who would take it in the morning to the local seamstress retained by the Dodgers for this kind of work. Every major-league city has one.
“It helps that we’re on the West Coast,” Sheridan said. “He has to fly so far. It gives us a little more time.”
But Walding didn’t have much time.
A few days ago, Walding moved into a new apartment in Allentown. It was Roman Quinn’s before, but Quinn needed surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right middle finger. So Walding and his longtime girlfriend, Taylor Blackmun, inherited Quinn’s place. They were lucky — Walding, as a minor-league free agent, had a little higher salary than some of his teammates who need roommates to help lower the rent.
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“We just moved in,” Blackmun said. “I just unpacked everything.”
They went to bed in the new place on the first night of a six-game homestand at Lehigh Valley. A chance to settle in. Then, around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Walding’s phone rang. He ignored it. It rang again. And again. And again.
“It kept waking me up,” Blackmun said. “I was getting so mad. Then he was getting mad at me because I was getting annoyed about it. Then, he finally answered.”
“Rapid-fire calling,” Walding said. “She was telling me, ‘Either answer it or turn it off.’ Thank God I didn’t turn it off. That would not have been good.”
Klentak had confirmed to Joe Jordan, the Phillies’ director of player development, that Walding was the pick. Jordan contacted Gary Jones, the manager at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Jones had the late-night honor of making the phone call for which Walding had waited his entire life.
It was not a glamorous moment.
“It was 2:30 in the morning,” Jones said. “I called him and said, ‘You’re going to the big leagues.’ You know what I’m saying? So I could go back to sleep. He was good. He was happy. … It’s always good to tell guys that are a grinder — he grinded his way through the system and had to work for everything he’s got.”
Walding remembered one piece of advice from Jones’ call: “Let this be a lesson learned to always answer your phone.” He immediately called his parents, who were at home in northern California.
“I was half asleep,” Karrie Walding, his mother, said. “I forgot to ask so many questions because I was so excited. It was just crazy. We were trying to plan our trip. Then I’m like, ‘I have to call back.’ I have so many questions.”
Blackmun started to repack everything that had been unpacked in the new apartment. “It happens,” she said. “It’s totally fine. Fine with me.” She smiled. She stood near the backstop at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday while her boyfriend of six years took batting practice. It was a dream.
“A normal day yesterday,” Karrie Walding said, “and we’re here today.”
As the Waldings scrambled to make travel plans, Jameson Hall waited by his laptop at the Phillies’ hotel in Pasadena, California. It was getting late. Hall, 30, had worked for almost a decade with the Phillies in community outreach and charity ventures. But he was in the fifth month of his new job as coordinator of team travel, and he had booked a seat on American 597 for Walding.
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Finally, around 1:30 a.m. PST, Hall connected with Walding. The flight was scheduled to leave Philadelphia at 10:15 a.m. EST. Walding had to be at the airport in a few hours. Everything moved so fast.
“I didn’t get any sleep then, but I got some sleep on the plane,” Walding said. “It finally calmed down then a little bit. It’s hard to go back to sleep once you get that call.”
Those nerves are what made Kapler think late that night after his call with Klentak. Kapler remembered what it was like in 1998, when he was an outfielder for the Jacksonville Suns and walked into manager Dave Anderson’s office. “You work your whole life for that moment,” Kapler said. So he decided Tuesday night that Walding would start Wednesday’s game.
“In my opinion, if you can do it and it gives you an opportunity to win, put him in the lineup as quickly as possible so that some of the nerves go away,” Kapler said. “You’re not sitting around waiting for that opportunity. It’s tough.”
More than an hour before batting practice, Walding asked someone in the clubhouse how to get to the field. Go through that hallway, take a right, up the stairs. He stood in a corner of the dugout and admired the 56-year-old ballpark. Kapler emerged from the tunnel and Walding asked him where he made his debut. Tiger Stadium. How cool is it, Kapler said to Walding, that you could play here at Dodger Stadium.
“A pretty special place to make your debut,” Kapler said.
Dodger Stadium. (Orlando Ramirez/USA TODAY Sports)
Joey Davis had never been to Dodger Stadium before Wednesday. “Bucket list,” Davis said. He leaned on the dugout railing and watched Walding’s batting practice swing. “If he gets his hands back,” Davis said, “he can get the head out there with the best of them.” Walding hit one that smacked the outfield wall.
Davis is a scout, but on Wednesday, he was a fan. He pulled up a fresh photo on his phone of the iconic sign at the entrance of Dodger Stadium. He had asked his taxi driver to stop there.
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Davis has been an amateur scout for 20 years — the last 15 with the Phillies — and covers a fertile area in Northern California and Nevada. Walding was his fifth player to reach the majors in the last 14 months. That kind of success rate does not happen. Klentak called Davis to congratulate him. It makes the long drives and time away from home to visit remote baseball outposts on this imperfect search a little sweeter.
On Wednesday, he planned to do some laundry at home in Sacramento. Then pack. Then hop a flight to Atlanta, rent a car, and drive to Athens to watch some college ball at the NCAA regional hosted by the University of Georgia. Some last-minute prep for next week’s draft. But Karrie Walding had texted him at 1:30 a.m. PST.
“I heard the phone,” Davis said. “I was half asleep. I looked at it and I just stared at it. I couldn’t believe it was true. I thought it was a dream.”
He changed his travel plans.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Davis said. “Especially a high school kid making it. You’re a lot closer to them because you have to walk them through the signing process. You have to help them weigh, ‘Should I go to college? Should I take the Phillies’ offer?’ You get to know the parents. They have to trust you when they make their decision on signing pro.”
Walding was a quarterback at St. Mary’s High School in Stockton, California. He had a baseball scholarship to the University of Oregon. Davis had a good feeling he could sway Walding. The family told Davis they would not sign for less than a certain amount. The Phillies picked Walding 181st overall in the 2011 draft. They negotiated for a month. They agreed at $800,000, the team’s second-highest bonus in that year’s draft. “We got him signed,” Davis said. “And he got his number. So it was fair for everybody.” But Walding was never a prospect. He struck out too much. He did not hit for power. He fractured a rib, then injured it even worse one time when he got off a couch. He collided with his catcher last season as they both went for a pop up and fractured his ear.
“Why do I think he’s here now?” Davis said. “Perseverance.”
Mitch Walding in an Arizona Fall League game in 2016. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)
When Hall arrived Wednesday to the ballpark, he had an email from assistant general manager Scott Proefrock. It contained Walding’s first major-league contract. Hall printed it. He found Walding in the weight room, and that is where he signed it. A No. 29 jersey, delivered from the seamstress around 3 p.m. PST, hung in his locker.
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He became the first hitter since 2002 to strike out four times in his major-league debut. And, still, he went to sleep Wednesday night a big leaguer.
“I think in everyone’s career, at some point, you tend to doubt yourself,” Walding said. “You go through skids where you’re like, ‘Do you have it in you?’ I always took a step back after going through my slumps and said, ‘You have the ability. It’s going to come eventually.’ Mine was a little longer than I would’ve liked, but I think it all works out for certain reasons.”
The journey from a bunch of missed calls in the middle of the night to a major-league clubhouse was long. But not that long.
“He’s been playing since he was 4,” Karrie Walding said. “So I think we were ready for this day.”
(Top photo: Kyusung Gong/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
