Guillermo and Goodbyes

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty ImagesI was in a Starbucks somewhere between Kent and Federal Way in the summer of 2016, when the Mariners announced they were calling Guillermo Heredia up to the majors. The shop was sandwiched in an industrial business park, with construction for blocks and scarcely anything but beige buildings as far as the eye could see.

The M’s had signed him a few months earlier without much fanfare and, despite his quarter century of life experience, had sent him to Jackson, Tennessee to play for the AA Generals. 58 games and a .293/.405/.781 line later he was on a plane to Tacoma, to join the AAA Rainiers. Again, he crushed it, hitting .340 with a .385 OBP in just 26…