By: Brian Frank
Bisons infielder Josh Kasevich, currently rated by MLB Pipeline as the Blue Jays number 10 prospect, started playing baseball when he was young due to the influence of his older brother.
“I wanted to do everything my older brother did,” Kasevich said in a recent interview with The Herd Chronicles. “We moved from Connecticut to California when I was very young, like one or two. My brother's four years older. He got into little league to meet some friends. So, he got into baseball and he would come home and want to play wiffle ball. So, my earliest memories of being around the game are playing wiffle ball in the front yard with him pretty much every single day after school.”
Kasevich pitched and played infield growing up. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Kasevich was an infielder growing up but also found a lot of success on the mound.
“I've always played infield,” he said. “I kind of played all over the infield in Little League. Then in high school, my first three years, I played first and a little bit of third. Then my senior year, I had a little bit of a body transformation and moved over to short – and I pitched throughout that too.”
During his senior season at Palo Alto High School in California, Kasevich had a 0.52 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched. He also hit .407 with two home runs, 10 doubles, 20 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases.
One of the biggest moments of his high school baseball career came in a 1-0 playoff win over archrival Los Gatos. He not only scored the only run, but also came on in relief to earn the save and preserve the shutout.
“We beat Los Gatos in the league championship,” he remembered. “They were kind of our rivals. I came in and closed the game there, which was so much fun. We had a great group of guys.”
After graduating, Kasevich attended the University of Oregon, where he originally intended to pitch and play the infield.
“I got a good amount of interest for pitching out of high school,” Kasevich said. “I always wanted to be a hitter. They (Oregon) wanted me to be a two-way player. As soon as I walked on the campus, it was obvious that I wanted to go there, so it was kind of a no brainer.”
However, much to Kasevich’s delight, his time on the mound didn’t last long.
“In the fall of my freshman year, I was doing both – pitching and playing the field,” he explained. “I pitched pretty well in the fall of my freshman year. I spent a lot of that winter break working on hitting, infield defense, and stuff like that. I didn't put as much focus into pitching, because that's not where my heart was. I didn't pitch that great coming back in the spring. Then one day, my coach called me right when I was leaving my computer science class and said, ‘You're done pitching.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, finally!’ So, since then, I've just been playing the field.”
Kasevich has a .818 OPS in 35 games with the Bisons. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
His first college season was cancelled after he played in just 14 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Kasevich took full advantage of his time away from the field.
“That was probably the biggest turning point in my career,” he explained. “As a college freshman, I was not physically ready to compete. I wasn't big enough, strong enough, fast enough, all that. So, I worked really, really hard during covid. I had a great trainer back home, and a group of guys that I would work out with who are all in pro ball now too. We would work out six to eight hours a day – hitting, defense, lifting weights, eating right. It was honestly very beneficial for me.”
During his sophomore season, Kasevich slashed .374/.403/.450 in 40 games, and helped the Ducks reach the NCAA Baseball Tournament, where they hosted a regional.
“That was crazy,” he said. “It was like the whole town shut down. You had four really good teams across the country coming in – and you get to be the host. There are just so many great advantages to being at home. You don’t have to leave. You can use your own locker room. And the fans are awesome. So, it was a really cool experience.”
“They hadn't been in the postseason for a while, and we had a really successful season under a new coach (Mark Wasikowski),” he continued. “He turned the culture around there and now they're kind of a national team. Being able to be a part of that change was unbelievable. I'll never forget that. Being able to host a regional was really cool.”
Kasevich spent the summer between his sophomore and junior seasons playing for the Waterloo Bucks in the Northwoods League, where he slashed .374/.403/.450. He returned to Oregon for his junior season and slashed .310/.383/.445 with seven home runs in 61 games.
“That was a fun year,” he recalled. “We made a regional again. I think that's the standard now at Oregon is making the postseason. We didn't win that regional. Definitely could have played better, but still a really cool experience to get to go there and play.”
Kasevich still does a series of defensive drills before every game that he learned at Oregon. They include bouncing a ball from hand to hand as he shifts his weight from side to side, and juggling baseballs.
“All of my little weird defensive drills come from my college infield coach,” Kasevich said. “He was awesome. I still talk to him to this day – Marcus Hinkle, unbelievable guy, great coach. He would push me every day and just would have me do weird things. So, I would do that. I was gone for the summer playing summer ball, and he called me and said, ‘Come back learning how to juggle.’ So now I juggle before I go out there. So, just little things like that that I feel get me ready.”
Kasevich has played a solid shortstop for the Herd. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Kasevich was selected by the Blue Jays in the second round of the 2022 Major League Baseball June Amateur Draft.
“I was at home,” he said of the moment he was drafted. “My girlfriend then, my fiancé now, she was there, and my parents. It was an awesome day looking back, but the draft starts at four, and the first round is like 10 minutes a pick, and I was pick 60, so there's just so much waiting. So, it was kind of miserable until it actually happened and then it was one of the greatest days.”
After attending a short draft camp at the Blue Jays spring training facilities, Kasevich played 25 games for the Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League, slashing .262/.344/.336.
“I played in a pretty good college conference, and then I came to pro ball and the talent is just way better than you could imagine. The pitching is better. So it was definitely an adjustment period then. It was great to get to play 30 or 40 games there to get some experience and then go into an off season knowing you’ve really got to get better to compete at this level too.”
The next season, he was promoted to the High-A Vancouver Canadians. In 94 games, he slashed .284/.363/.365. The team had a very successful year, finishing the regular season in first place with a 77-54 record.
“That was awesome for me personally,” he said, “because I'm from the West Coast and one of the teams (in the league) is based out of Eugene. So, I got to go there, and my family's around there, so I got to see them a lot. It was a ton of fun to get a play in Vancouver and continue playing with that group of guys that I was drafted with and form some good bonds with.”
In the playoffs, Vancouver defeated the Everett Aqua Sox in four games in the Northwest League Championship Series.
“There was a lot of camaraderie last season with the guys, which was really cool,” he said. “Especially in professional baseball, a lot of guys are chasing their individual goals, which you have to an extent, but there was a lot of camaraderie. Guys were pulling for their teammates. It was a great environment to be a part of.”
“It was so cool and so much fun,” he continued. “The fans there really care about that team. It was an awesome environment to play in and it was pretty electric to win it.”
Vancouver general manager Allan Bailey recently journeyed to New Hampshire and Buffalo to deliver championship rings to former Canadians players who are now on the Fisher Cats and Bisons.
“We got some cool rings,” Kasevich said. “I was definitely not expecting that. It was really cool.”
Kasevich began this season at Double-A New Hampshire, where he slashed .284/.333/.364 in 87 games.
“There was that adjustment period as you go up to a new level,” he said. “But you kind of get to realize after you move levels a couple times that it's the same game. So, just sticking to your strengths, whatever level you're at, sticking to what you do well and don't over complicate the game.”
He was promoted to Triple-A at the beginning of August. Since that time, he’s been one of the Bisons’ most productive hitters. In 34 games with the Herd, he’s slashing .336/.390/.414 with a pair of home runs and seven doubles.
“I’m very approach driven,” he said of his hitting philosophy. “I think I'm pretty dynamic in the box, so I can hit the ball hard. My goal is just consistent barrels. I'm just trying to make life hard on the defense and put pressure on them.”
Now, the 23-year-old is looking to take his game to the next level and realize his dream of playing in the big leagues.
“Just keep developing,” he said. “I mean, there's always things you can do in this game – whether that's hitting for power and how that will come. I'm not too worried about that. I know that'll come. I know I hit the ball really hard. It's just figuring out that angle. So, it's just continuing down the path that the Blue Jays staff and I have figured is the best for the future going forward.”
If his time in Buffalo is any indication, the path going forward holds big things for the young infielder.
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