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Michael Stefanic of the Toronto Blue Jays
Michael Stefanic has always been one of the most interesting players in professional baseball, mainly due to his unusual backstory. After going undrafted in 2018 after two years playing at tiny Westmont College — a school in Santa Barbara, California, with a student population of fewer than 1,300 — Stefanic threw together a video with some highlights from his college career and showing him taking ground balls in the infield.
His journey to the big leagues was obviously an unusual and improbable one, but after three seasons and 90 major league games with the Los Angeles Angels, the Toronto Blue Jays signed the now-29-year-old to a minor league contract almost exactly one year ago, on Dec. 3, 2024, according to his official MLB.com transactions page.
Barely more than a year later, the Blue Jays have now lost Stefanic, who on Monday was reported to have agreed to a free-agent deal with the team formerly known as the Oakland Athletics, now based in West Sacramento, California, according to an initial report by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.
Stefanic Elected Free Agency in November
Stefanic started the season with the Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons, where he posted a .786 OPS and hit six home runs in 442 plate appearances over 109 games. His home run total was his highest since 2021, when Stefanic belted 16 for the Salt Lake Bees, another Triple-A team but in the Angels system.
The second baseman and utility player has never been known for his power. In 99 MLB games Stefanic has never hit a home run. In his Statcast numbers, his barrel rate is zero percent, and his hard-hit rate is just 22.2 percent, according to a summary by Nick Deeds of MLB Trade Rumors.
“That complete lack of power is difficult to make work in the majors,” Deeds wrote. “Luis Arraez is virtually the only player in the modern game to find any sort of sustained success with that sort of approach.”
Could Compete for Athletics Bench Role
Nonetheless, the Blue Jays called him up to their major league club on May 9. After just 22 at-bats and only four base hits, Stefanic was designated for assignment on June 3. After he cleared waivers, the team sent Stefanic back to Buffalo.
Following the season, on November 2, the infielder elected free agency, agreeing to a deal with the Athletics about a month later that contains an invitation to the team’s spring training. According to Deeds, “it wouldn’t be a shock to see Stefanic compete with someone like (infielder Max) Schuemann for a bench job headed into camp this spring.”
Stefanic ‘Intrigued’ Big League Club
The former Westmont Warrior sent his home video to all 30 big league clubs after going ignored in the 2018 draft, but got only one bite, from the Angels.
“The way he swings the bat and stays in the zone and barrels the ball, you have to be intrigued by it,” Salt Lake manager Lou Marson told The Athletic in 2022. “I think he is going to play in the big leagues.”
Stefanic, despite starting with the Angels as an “extra body,” according to The Athletic, soon became one of the organization’s most “productive” hitters, “creating an intriguing problem for the Angels — who might not be able to deny him a major league call-up.”
Stefanic got not one but three call-ups with the Angels, appearing in major league games in 2022, 2023 and 2024 before he first chose free agency and signed with the Blue Jays.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
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