The Springfield Cardinals are having a memorable season, whether it’s the organization’s top prospect providing a walk-off hit or a former enterprise risk consultant earning the pitching victory with lockdown relief.
Nick Raquet is not your typical rising young prospect in Double-A baseball. The 29-year-old left-hander was out of baseball for three seasons before rediscovering his love for the game in the independent Atlantic League prior to signing with the Cardinals in 2024.
The third-round draft choice of the Washington Nationals in 2017 continued his comeback from office job to pitcher’s mound on July 1, striking out five in two scoreless innings as Springfield beat Northwest Arkansas 4-3. No. 1 prospect JJ Wetherholt ended the game with a two-out RBI single in the 10th inning.
Raquet is one of the more unlikely standouts for the Texas League-playoff-bound Cardinals. His stats, along with the fact that he throws from the left side, would seem to make him a candidate for promotion at some point. Whatever happens, he’s enjoying the ride.
“I just think, ‘Hey, man, you got a jersey on your back. You got to go outside and play baseball for a living.’ That’s awesome,” Raquet said. “Just being able to stack good days together, stack good weeks, that’s what’s really important.”
Raquet hasn’t allowed a run since May 22
Springfield Cardinals relief pitcher Nick Raquet. (Springfield Cardinals photo).
Raquet improved to 7-0 by throwing two scoreless innings with five strikeouts in the series opener on Tuesday night at Hammons Field. He also has three saves and a glittering 0.95 earned run average, not having allowed a run in 10 appearances dating to May 22.
Springfield manager Patrick Anderson said he had Raquet when the two were in Class A with the Nationals and Raquet was a young prospect.
“I have a really good history with Nick and when we signed him here with the Cardinals, I was really excited,” Anderson said. “When I saw him in spring training last year, it was great to be able to manage him again and it is kind of a little special thing for both of us. That’s pretty cool.”
Raquet pitched collegiately at North Carolina (2015) and Wiliam & Mary (2016-17) before signing with the Nationals. He was a starting pitcher in those days, winning 11 games in 2019 for High-A Potomac.
He used COVID-canceled season to finish business degree
Springfield Cardinals relief pitcher Nick Raquet, center, high fives teammates in the dugout before the first pitch vs the NW Arkansas Naturals. (Photo by Ellie Frysztak)
When COVID-19 canceled the 2020 minor-league season, Raquet returned to William & Mary to finish his business degree.
“That was something that was really important to me, regardless of COVID or not,” Raquet said. “It was honestly a perfect opportunity to go do that. And then there were talks about the 2021 minor league season being canceled, too. Being at a school like William & Mary with a pretty great alumni network, great academics, job offers were there.”
“It just kind of felt like the path my life was supposed to take.”
Even as the 20th-ranked prospect in the Nationals organization, Raquet had a decision to make, calling it “like a quarter-life crisis thing at like 24, 25 years old. This job offer is right here. It doesn’t seem like it would be that bad, and I just went for it.
Raquet took a job with Ernst & Young as an enterprise risk consultant, which meant helping clients navigate various business risks. It wasn’t quite what he thought it would be.
“I went into that and then obviously that wasn’t my favorite thing in the world,” he said with a laugh. “Pretty mundane stuff, like entry-level, trying to work your way up. Sometimes I’ve looked back and I wish that I never went into it, but I’m grateful for the lessons that it taught me.”
He dominated the Atlantic League in 2023 return
Springfield Cardinals relief pitcher Nick Raquet high fives teammate Osvaldo Berrios before a game vs the NW Arkansas Naturals. (Photo by Ellie Frysztak)
By 2022, Raquet kept seeing former professional baseball teammates on social media living the baseball life and he started to miss the game. He began to go to a workout facility in Washington, D.C., lifting weights and occasionally throwing the baseball around.
Raquet began to wonder if the baseball door really was locked.
“I felt like I was missing out and I was still in shape,” he said. “My back didn’t hurt yet. I wasn’t in that part of my life yet. I was still lifting and trying to stay strong and everything. I might just go and just play catch a little bit and just see how it feels. And that turned into like a day, into a week, into a month, and I was like, ‘Man, this doesn’t feel too bad.’”
It all led to Raquet signing with the York Revolution in the Atlantic League for the 2023 season. He led the league with 13 wins, 103 ⅓ innings pitched and 122 strikeouts while being named Atlantic League pitcher of the year.
“He had a remarkable season,” York manager Rick Forney said. “I didn’t expect that he’d throw the number of innings he did or be as dominant as he was throughout the season because he had been away from it for a while.”
Just as important as confirming he could still pitch, Raquet learned more about himself.
“It was also a season to gain my love of baseball back,” Raquet said. “It was just a bunch of guys trying to get back in the mix of affiliated baseball. And I think that was just like a pure, just joy of the game and it was really nice to feel that grow back inside of me, wanting to be at the ballpark every day and wanting to work and everything.
“That’s led to me having so much fun this year and having a better perspective of what this game’s all about.”
He brings a four-pitch repertoire out of the bullpen
Raquet signed with the Cardinals and split the 2024 season between Springfield and Triple-A Memphis. He started six games in 35 appearances and has made the full-time switch to relief this season.
Raquet’s fastball peaks at 95 or 96, and he’s able to use a changeup, slider and sweeper to be effective against hitters from both sides.
“His maturity and understanding of what he needs to do every day, his routine is awesome,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all what he’s doing. You know, it’s just a matter of an opportunity for him at some point.
“I always say if you’re left-handed and breathing, you’ve got a chance,” Anderson added with a laugh. “But he’s a little bit more than just that. He’s got an opportunity in this organization, and hopefully something falls his way. He’s resilient and deserves every bit of it.”
‘At the end of the day, I get a ball in my hand and I get to pitch and compete’
Raquet said, “it’s impossible not to think about” the possibility of his second baseball act winding up in St. Louis and pitching in the big leagues — though he tries to tamp down his expectations. His focus needs to be on what he’s doing today, not what might happen tomorrow or next month.
“When I was coming up with the Nats, I think I was so worried about moving up and what I had to do to move up and to be taken seriously and all that stuff … it ended up kind of crippling me mentally,” Raquet said.
“I want to be pitching and I want to be competing with hard workers at either level, and I’m happy to go to either level. At the end of the day, I get a ball in my hand and I get to pitch and compete, and that’s the main thing.”
Cardinals’ upcoming games
July 1 — Springfield 4, Northwest Arkansas 3 (10 innings)
July 2 — Springfield 7, Northwest Arkansas 3
July 3 — Northwest Arkansas at Springfield, 6:05 p.m.
July 4-6 — Springfield at Northwest Arkansas
Ticket info — Call (417) 863-0395
Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton