By JOE McFARLAND

All Tyler Herron wanted was a chance to put his foot in professional baseball’s door.

The Grande Prairie native has always been willing to do whatever it takes to move up the ladder in baseball, whether it’s moving to a new town or changing schools.

He’s confident in his abilities and the patience to understand that he’s not the most sought-after prospect.

When the Tampa Bay Rays signed him as a free agent shortly after the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft, the 21-year-old says he understood that time is on his side.

“Looking around and understanding that I have time and that this doesn’t have to go absolutely perfect right off the bat,” Herron told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast.

“Just do what you’ve done your whole life – just relax, have fun play baseball, and don’t get caught up in trying to move up a level or what people are saying.”

That mentality earned him a call-up to High-A Bowling Green for a game in September 2024, and plenty of movement in his first full season of pro ball.

Always taking in as much knowledge as he can from older players, it’s a theme that’s followed him throughout his entire baseball journey.

HERE FISHY, FISHY

Being a sponge had to come naturally to Herron, even as a young boy.

He says he must have been about three years old when he first started tagging along with his parents and older brother, who is about three years older.

“My parents were sick of leaving one of us at home while the other was out,” Herron recalled.

He never felt out of place or intimidated by the older athletes and ended up excelling at each level despite being one of the youngest on the field.

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A few years later, Herron’s parents took the two boys to a camp in Texas, where he says they wanted to figure something out.

“They were wondering if I was actually good or just good for Grande Prairie,” he said, saying it was easy to think of himself as a big fish in a little pond. “I ended up doing pretty well and won the MVP of the tournament or something like that.”

It turns out, he turned the heads of travel ball scouts in the United States, and he joined a team for a few summers while he was in junior high.

PARKLAND POTENTIAL

Once in high school, Herron moved from Grande Prairie to St. Albert to play for the Cardinals Development Program.

It became a second home for the budding backstop as he plied his trade, getting himself ready for college baseball.

“That was a huge decision for my family,” Herron said. “It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows in the beginning, either, but if you really want this thing, you have to go out and get it.”

He landed at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois as a freshman in 2022, hitting .294 in 39 games with 10 doubles, three triples, three home runs and 25 runs batted in.

Tyler Herron applies the tag while playing for Parkland College.

More impressively, he finished the season with a 99.2 fielding percentage, registering 233 put outs.

In his sophomore season, he hit .265 with seven homers and 23 RBI in just 25 games, posting a fielding percentage of 98.7.

Scouts were once again intrigued, as he was offered a spot with the Williamsport Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League that summer, where he hit .270 with two RBI and three solen bases in 17 games.

ENTERING THE PORTAL

Just an hour northwest along the I74, Herron’s next stop awaited at Illinois State University.

Splitting time behind the plate with fellow juniors Daniel Contreras and Nick Strong, he sported a stats line of .328 with one roundtripper and 17 RBI in 35 games.

Tyler Herron takes a long look at a deep drive with Illinois State University.

Not liking where he was at and his prospects moving forward, Herron entered the transfer portal after the spring season to see what interest there might be.

“I’ll tell you, when I first hit the portal, I came to my dad’s office at eight in the morning for the next six days and took calls until four in the afternoon,” Herron said. “It was non-stop talking to coaches, talking to people, getting offers, whatever the case was.”

Despite the sleep deprivation, he was able to cut the list down to four or five schools before ultimately landing on Louisville.

“I got advice that you want to catch a staff that’s really good and that will have scouts coming to games,” Herron said. “They were going to have a first-round guy, so going to play for Coach Mack (Dan McDonnell) and catching a really good staff, for me, it was kind of a no-brainer.”

He made the announcement officially on social media on Canada Day.

PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE

While he might have been ready to join his new school, Herron was aware that the MLB Draft was happening just a couple of weeks later.

He had been in contact with a few scouts and thought he might hear his name get called.

However, it didn’t happen.

“The MLB Draft is the most unpredictable thing in North America,” Herron said. “You have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, but I did make it clear to teams that I was willing to sign for pretty much anything.”

“I just wanted to get my foot in the door and start my professional baseball career.”

Nearly 30 minutes after the draft’s conclusion, he says he got a call from the Tampa Bay Rays.

After talking it over with his parents, Herron said he was ready to sign, forego the rest of his schooling and chase his professional baseball dream.

He embarked on a whirlwind few weeks, starting with the usual workouts and tests before officially putting pen to paper.

“It’s a dream come true,” Herron said. “You look at that paper, you walk around the building, you see all the signs, they give you the clothes, you put on the Rays logo – whatever it is, I’ll be 35 years old, hopefully playing in the show, and it still won’t feel real to me.”

IT’S IN HIS BLOOD

It could have been easy for Herron to get a big head and start dreaming about moving up the organizational depth chart quickly.

Instead, he is focused on taking it one step at a time.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Herron says. “Obviously when you sign, you get the contract, you can kind of think about it and get a big head for a second, but as soon as it’s time to get to work, you have to put that stuff away and focus.”

He made his Spring Training debut with the Rays on March 17 against the New York Mets, going 0-for-2 as a mid-game replacement for designated hitter Jake Mangum.

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However, towards the end of the spring, he suffered a thumb injury, which led to a stint on the injured list before finally getting to suit up again for some extended spring training games for the Florida Complex League (FCL) Rays.

Herron has since suited up in games for the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs and the High-A Bowling Green Hot Rods.

It might be a small sample size so far, but he says this is exactly what he was meant to do.

“The building, the atmosphere, the people, everything, it’s what you absolutely crave,” Herron said. “It’s what’s in your blood if you’re a professional baseball player and knowing that’s what I get to wake up and do every day is such a good feeling.”

Not only is Tyler Herron’s foot in pro ball’s door, he’s dedicating himself to prying it wide open.