On YouTube, Blaze Jordan is forever 11 years old, cracking home runs many adult batters wish they could hit. He’s at the Power Showcase at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, the former home of the Texas Rangers. In the video, Jordan sends baseballs over the wall with the force and frequency of a hitter who should not be just 11.
Pick another video. There’s a few dozen of them, all the same. Jordan, nowhere close to shaving or driving a car, setting baseballs free from ballparks all over the country.
“It kind of happened overnight. I went there just to see what it was about, and then the next thing I knew, it was on YouTube, and people started to come watch my games. It was pretty cool,” said Jordan, now 20 and hanging out in the Portland Sea Dogs clubhouse on a recent rainy afternoon before a game against the Hartford Yard Goats. “People still bring it up every day. The fans, that’s what they say they remember me by.”
Selected in the third round of the 2020 draft by the Boston Red Sox, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Jordan is one of the youngest players in Double-A since his promotion to Portland on July 14 (Jordan is seven days younger than his Portland teammate, Marcelo Mayer, Boston’s first pick in 2021). His goal is to continue developing as a complete hitter and give people something new to remember him by.
Entering Saturday night’s game, Jordan had played in 23 games for the Sea Dogs, hitting .233 with four home runs, 18 RBI, and nine runs scored, a .400 slugging percentage and a .678 OPS. Three of those four home runs came in a five-game stretch at Bowie last week.
Jordan’s first hit with the Sea Dogs was a home run against Reading on July 15. He’s ranked as Boston’s 12th-best prospect by MLB.com, and 19th by Soxprospects.com.
“We saw in Bowie the power production,” Portland Manager Chad Epperson said. “They were big boy hits… There’s some real juice in that bat. Real juice.”
When Jordan got the call to Portland, he was hitting .324 with 12 home runs and 55 RBI in Greenville. Jordan’s slugging percentage was .533, and his OPS (on base plus slugging) was a lofty .918. The Red Sox knew their corner infield prospect had nothing left to prove in Class A.
“Playing in Double-A is a chance to be challenged,” said Brian Abraham, Boston’s director of player development. “There’s going to be failure, and you fight through it, but there’s going to be success, too.”
Not only is Jordan young for Double-A, he’s playing professional baseball after just three years of high school. Like Maine basketball player Copper Flagg, who announced Friday he’ll reclassify into the Class of 2024 in order to start college a year early and possibly enter the 2025 NBA draft, Jordan reclassified to the Class of 2020, making himself eligible for the MLB draft at 17.
“The biggest thing for me was, I just felt like I was ready to take that next step. I feel like it was the right decision for me, and I just wanted to get into pro ball a year early. I feel like it’s been really beneficial to have that extra year,” Jordan said.
Mark Monaghan coached Jordan on the DeSoto Central High School baseball team in Southaven, Mississippi. Monaghan said he was disappointed he didn’t get to coach Jordan in his senior season, but he understood Jordan’s decision to leave early. Monaghan met Jordan in the fall of 2016, when as an eighth grader Jordan made the DeSoto varsity team. He already had bat speed and hands more advanced than any player Monaghan had seen at that age.
When Jordan was 13, he hit 500-foot home runs at a power showcase. When he was in high school, he committed to play at Mississippi State. At 15, he was profiled by Bleacher Report, who referred to Jordan as a baseball phenom.
As he advanced through high school, Jordan learned to be patient at the plate. Pitchers had seen those videos of his mammoth home runs and were not about to challenge him. But high school pitchers will make mistakes, and Jordan had to seize those opportunities.
“They tried to get Blaze to get himself out and chase pitches. He learned discipline. He learned to take the walks and not get flustered. Impose his will and let the game come to him,” Monaghan said.
The patience learned as a teenage is serving Jordan well now as he adjusts to facing more talented pitchers in Double-A.
“It’s definitely a big jump from High-A, I would say. But it’s the same game. I think I’ve made the adjustments, especially from the first couple weeks I was up here. They don’t really miss in the heart of the zone much. So I’m just waiting for the right pitch to hit, something I can really drive,” Jordan said. “The biggest thing for me is, I try to be the best overall hitter I can be. I don’t worry too much about my power. I know it will come. Really, just getting a pitch I can drive and I feel like I’ve done a better job of that, being aggressive, especially over the last two weeks. Laying off the stuff on the corners. That’s when I was getting myself out sometimes.”
Entering Saturday night’s game, Jordan had a hit in seven of his last 10 games, driving in 12 runs in the process. A key to Jordan’s development in Greenville was improving his strikeout rate. Last season, which he spent mostly at low-Class A Salem before a late-season promotion to Greenville, Jordan struck out in 20% of his at-bats. He lowered that number to just over 16% this season at Greenville. So far with the Sea Dogs, Jordan has struck out in just 13% of his at-bats.
“I don’t think the kid has chased outside the strike zone. He’s on the fastball. He’s on the offspeed, and he’s able to lay off pitches that aren’t strikes. It’s not like he’s getting hits every time, but his swing decisions are good,” Epperson said.
In his first 23 games with Portland, Jordan had 11 starts at first base, 10 at third, and two as the designated hitter. The plan is for him to continue playing both corners, Abraham said.
“Anywhere that gets me in the lineup,” Jordan said when asked if he has a preference in the field. “I’m comfortable at both.”
Along with the videos of young Blaze blasting bombs in home run derbies, there are YouTube highlights of present-day Jordan crushing the ball in Greenville earlier this season. Jordan doesn’t shy away from his internet sensation past, but he knows it won’t mean anything if he doesn’t continue improving. Jordan doesn’t want to be the kid who peaked at 11. He wants you to be watching videos of him hitting the ball out of Fenway Park.
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