LOS ANGELES — There’s a reason this article features a generic picture of Dodger Stadium.
It’s because this is article is about Carlos Moncrief, and there are no photos of Carlos Moncrief.
Well, none that KNBR.com are licensed to use, anyway.
At KNBR, we have access to a deep base of photos from athletes playing every sport across the country and in many cases, around the world. I could write an article about Jordan Spieth, and pull up a picture from last weekend’s British Open. I could type a column about the United States Alpine Skiing Championships that took place back in March, and I’d have a picture of any competitor I’d want to write about. But today, it’s my job to write about Carlos Moncrief, and there are no photos of Carlos Moncrief.
That’s because Moncrief probably wasn’t supposed to make his Major League debut on Saturday. Somewhere along the line, Moncrief was probably told he would never make his Major League debut. But on Saturday, he finally did.
“You’ve got the dream of hitting a home run your first AB but once I got in the box, it was me versus the pitcher,” Moncrief said. “You just go from there one pitch at a time.”
After 10 seasons in Minor League baseball, the 14th round draft choice of the Cleveland Indians back in 2008 finally stepped up to the plate at Dodger Stadium. When the Giants needed a pinch hitter in the top of the eighth inning, manager Bruce Bochy looked at Moncrief and asked him to do the honors. It was, of course, Moncrief’s first career big league plate appearance.
“It was more nerve-wracking on deck, I would say,” Moncrief said. “Because on deck it was like, you don’t know how you’re going to feel. Once I got in the box, I looked around like I normally do, slow the game down, I got it, just play.”
Ten years ago, Moncrief never would have envisioned his first opportunity in the Major Leagues beginning in the Dodger Stadium batter’s box. That’s because when Moncrief was drafted, he was a pitcher. And for the first two seasons of Moncrief’s career in the Indians’ organization, he pitched.
In 2010, Moncrief transitioned into a full-time position player, and he spent most of the year in the New York-Penn League, where he hit .241 as a 20-year-old.
In 2011, Moncrief played A-ball. In 2012, he was in High-A. In 2013, he finally made it to AA, where for the first time, he hit over .249. In fact, he hit .284. So in 2014, Moncrief earned an invitation to Spring Training with the Cleveland Indians, In the spring of 2014, Moncrief finally had his photo taken in an Indians’ uniform. Writers and editors would have been giddy over some of the photos they could have used had Moncrief made his debut in 2014. They’re quite something.
But Moncrief didn’t make his debut then, and he didn’t make it in 2015 either, when he hit .187 with AAA Columbus. By that time, Moncrief and his wife Brandy already had two children, but they didn’t have a single Major League paycheck. At the end of 2015, the Indians and Moncrief went their separate ways, and it could have been the end of his Major League dream. After eight seasons, and two as a pitcher, Moncrief had yet to make it.
That offseason, Moncrief signed with the Giants’ organization on a Minor League deal, and in 2016, he spent the year with the team’s AA affiliate, the Richmond Flying Squirrels. Moncrief hit .261 with Richmond, but it would be stretching the truth to suggest he was on the Giants’ Major League radar.
Yet in 2017, Moncrief began the season with the AAA Sacramento River Cats, and once again, he was a step away from reaching the top shelf. Still, though, a call to the show wasn’t in the cards.
But earlier this week, things changed. Baseball is a weird sport, and weird things happen. The Giants traded their starting third baseman, and the player they wanted to call up, Jae-gyun Hwang, wasn’t eligible to return to the big leagues yet. San Francisco also needed outfield help, but Bochy wasn’t ready to bring back Jarrett Parker from a rehab assignment. The team’s top prospect, Chris Shaw? The Giants don’t want to rush him to the big leagues.
To complicate matters even further, Bochy didn’t even want an everyday player. He wanted someone who could come off the bench, fill in when needed, and perhaps make a spot start. Enter Moncrief.
“I know that everything is a stepping stone regardless of what the road is,” Moncrief said. “I don’t think there’s a destination so to speak, it’s just to continue this journey. I’m not thinking that oh, I finally made it. It’s keep moving, keep working, keep getting better every day.”
With the Giants trailing 2-1 in the eighth inning, Bochy called on the most patient player on his roster to pinch hit. Moncrief waited 10 seasons –well, eight seasons if you only count those he spent as a position player– to make his first plate appearance. Naturally, Moncrief wanted a pitch to hit. Naturally, a player that’s spent his whole adult life waiting worked a full count, and drew a walk. It was all too perfect.
“They were pitching him like Bonds,” Bochy said. “They were being careful. He drew a walk against a lefty. Yeah, that was a nice at-bat. I mean, that first at-bat in the Major Leagues is hard to describe what’s going through your mind but he looked very calm. Ended up getting a walk.”
With his wife and sons, he now has four of them, in the stands at Dodger Stadium, Moncrief whipped his bat aside, and trotted down toward first like he’d done it a million times before.
Though our photo database doesn’t have any photos of Moncrief drawing his walk, I could have called for special permission to use photos of Moncrief in his Indians’ jersey back at Spring Training in 2015. I would have needed special permission, because according to the database, those photos are now in the historical archive. I imagine it’s something like the Disney vault.
In any event, I chose to use a generic photo of Dodger Stadium to commemorate Moncrief’s first plate appearance, because it helps tell his story best. Moncrief had to wait for his moment, and now that it came, he’ll have to wait for his picture.
If the journey is anything like the one he took to get to the Major Leagues, eventually, that photo will appear. Moncrief just has to be patient.