During the last day of August during the 2016 regular season, the Oakland Athletics promoted a scrappy, gritty, annoying infielder: 26-year-old, Joey Wendle.
Long before that though, the hard-nosed Wendle was first taken in the sixth round of the 2012 draft by the Cleveland Baseball Team and signed just one day later, officially beginning his professional career. During his first taste of action, Wendle excelled as he finished the season with a 148 wRC+. As the year’s passed, Wendle became the model of consistency as the gym rat just continued to put in solid campaigns.
Entering the 2015 season, prospect pundits began to take notice of Wendle as he was ranked as the 17th prospect in Cleveland’s system.