By Zach Worden
If you were trying to follow Jordan Procyshen’s 2023 season, you might have had a hard time keeping up.
The 30-year-old Calgary product was all over the baseball map this calendar year. From serving as Team Canada’s bullpen catcher during the World Baseball Classic (WBC) to being on standby while the Texas Rangers made their run to a World Series title — and everything in between — Procyshen’s campaign ran longer than just about any other player.
Despite getting the early start at the WBC, Procyshen actually missed spring training before signing a minor-league contract with the Rangers in April.
“It was a very interesting year, especially not getting signed until late,” he said in a Zoom call from his home just outside of Tulsa, Okla. “I was actually a week away from reporting to the indy ball team that I was supposed to play for this summer. I didn’t sign a contract with them yet. It was just more of a handshake agreement so that there was no buyout.”
The left-handed swinging Procyshen had spent the previous two seasons with the Rangers’ double-A affiliate, the Frisco RoughRiders, and helped the club win the 2022 Texas League title. So when a need came up in the organization for a backstop, the Okotoks Dawgs Academy alum got a call.
While he started back with the RoughRiders, Procyshen didn’t spend much more time in double-A, suiting up in just three games before getting a call that was nine years in the making.
Procyshen would be making his triple-A debut 3,233 days after signing his first pro contract.
“It was surreal. We just got back from a two-week road trip. My wife, daughter and I just got settled into our hotel. We had a two-week homestand, bought all of our groceries, and I got a call from my manager,” he recalled.
“And right away, my wife thought we were getting released. When you get a call from the manager on an off day — especially a guy in my situation — it’s usually not good news,” he continued. “But hearing that I was needed in triple-A the next day and to expect to play two times a week, it was the call that you want.”
The Junior National Team alum, who made his pro debut in the Red Sox system in 2014, had finally broken through. He joined the Round Rock Express on May 10, going 1-for-3 with a walk and double in his very first triple-A game.
“Obviously, I want to get to that ultimate level, to the major leagues, but I’m going to take my wins when I get them. And this is a win that I’d been wanting to have for a long time,” he said.
“It’s all that hard work, all the failures, all the ups and the downs of being the guy to being someone without a job to not playing every day to barely playing to being on and off the roster. It’s the determination that I’ve given it all the way back to my younger days finally paying off.”
However, Procyshen wasn’t finished with his “whirlwind” of a summer after his call-up. In June, the 5-foot-10 catcher joined Team Canada at the WBSC Americas Pan Am Qualifying tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Canada played well in the tournament, finishing 3-1, but due to the tournament’s tie-break system, it didn’t advance to the final — missing out on a shot at the 2023 Pan Am Games.
Despite the disappointing result, Procyshen showed well in Argentina. He hit .364 with a 1.169 OPS while handling the duties behind the plate in all four games. He collected four hits, a home run, four walks and five RBIs, reaching base in three of the contests.
“It was an opportunity I didn’t want to pass up on,” he said of making the trip to Buenos Aires. “[I’m] very thankful that the Rangers let me go. They didn’t have to… but they understand that if you want to play for your country, it’s not an opportunity that everyone gets.”
A chance to represent Canada in the future is something that Procyshen says he wouldn’t turn down “if I’m still playing and they’re giving me the opportunity.”
After the tournament, Procyshen returned to Round Rock and helped the Express win the Pacific Coast League (PCL) second-half title and advance to the championship series against the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
He finished the year hitting .247 with a .723 OPS at triple-A while reaching base at a .367 clip. Only four full-time catchers posted a better walk rate than Procyshen’s 14.4 per cent mark.
In the PCL final, the Dodgers would go on to take the series 2-0, but that still wasn’t the end of the season for a handful of Rangers prospects.
With Texas on the way to its first World Series championship in franchise history, the taxi squad that called themselves the “stay readies,” included Procyshen.
“We actually got to go to Game 3 when they beat the Orioles [in the American League Division Series],” he said. “It’s a cool moment to know that you were a part of it, even in a small manner. The thing for me, is all my former teammates that were on the team.
“Cody Bradford, Josh Jung, Evan Carter, all those guys I played with and that were my roommate on the road or my locker neighbour… It’s those little things and those friendships that you make and you get to see them succeed at the highest level, to me, is the coolest part.”
While he was back at home when the Rangers clinched the ultimate prize in Arizona, Procyshen was soaking it in as he watched his former teammates come away with the Commisioner’s Trophy.
With the season wrapped up, Procyshen elected to become a free agent on Nov. 6.
“This is my sixth year of free agency, so every year is a little different,” he said of entering this off-season on the open market. “Some years, you have a decent idea of ‘something’s gonna happen.’ And then there are years where it’s ‘alright. I guess I’m just going to wait and hopefully something happens.’”
With over 400 career games in the minors, Procyshen says the key to continuing his career is staying ready and finding a way to make himself valuable to teams.
As a catcher, Procyshen puts a premium on what he can bring to the table defensively.
“First and foremost, [I focus] on being a good catch and throw guy behind the plate,” he said. “If I can receive the ball well, throw the ball well and block the ball well, I’ll have a job.”
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“If a team calls on you, and somebody’s being your reference and they’re saying ‘he can catch, he can throw, he has a great relationship with pitchers and he’s going to be able to command a pitching staff,’ the team won’t even ask about the bat.”
After nine years of pro ball, if there’s one thing Procyshen says he’s learned, it’s that “nothing’s a finished product.”
“You’ve got to keep getting better and keep working,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what you did last week, what you did last month, what you did last — what are you going to do today?”
“That’s been the biggest thing. You’re not a finished product. I’m very thankful for baseball. It allowed me to find my wife and have my daughter…It’s allowed me to live the life that I want to live and have the experiences that I never thought I would have.”
