Rainiers notes: Tacoma now has four former Puget Sound high school stars on its roster
When the Triple-A baseball season opened earlier this month, the Rainiers had one player on their roster who was once a high school standout in Washington.
Now, they have four.
Outfielder Steven Souza Jr. (Cascade of Everett) signed with Seattle as a minor league free agent this offseason, joined Tacoma following spring training and has played in 11 games with the Rainiers this spring.
Tuesday, they added two more with ties to both local high school and college programs in right-hander Riley O’Brien (Shorewood, Everett CC), whom Seattle acquired from the Reds, and outfielder Trent Tingelstad (Marysville-Pilchuck, Everett CC), who played four games earlier this month with Double-A Arkansas.
Saturday, outfielder Stuart Fairchild (Seattle Prep) was acquired from the Diamondbacks and made his way to Tacoma.
Sunday afternoon at Cheney Stadium, the four local products played in a game together for the first time.
Fairchild started in center field, Tingelstad started at designated hitter, O’Brien pitched an inning in relief and Souza appeared late in the game as a pinch hitter.
“Being in pro ball and being at this level, it’s actually wild that it’s worked out like that,” Tingelstad said postgame of the four ending up in Tacoma this spring.
Souza, who turned 33 years old Sunday, has played professional baseball since 2007, when he was drafted in the third round by the Nationals following his high school career at Cascade.
He played stints in the Nationals, Rays, Diamondbacks, Cubs and Dodgers systems before Seattle signed him in March and has played in 1,300 games — including 499 in the majors and 801 in the minors — in his career to this point.
With the Rainiers, he is hitting .219/.432/.344 with four runs scored, one double, one home run, three RBI, one stolen base and 11 walks.
O’Brien, 27, pitched at Shorewood, then played two seasons at Everett CC and two more at College of Idaho before he was drafted in the eighth round by the Rays in 2017.
He pitched the first three seasons of his career in Tampa Bay’s organization before spending last season in Cincinnati’s system. He debuted with the Reds in September, starting one game.
Seattle acquired O’Brien earlier this month in exchange for a player to be named later or cash considerations after he was designated for assignment, and added him to the 40-man roster.
O’Brien has been a starter most of his career but has worked out of the bullpen since his arrival in Tacoma. He made his first two appearances with the Rainiers over the weekend allowing one run (unearned) on two hits while striking out four and walking two across 1-2/3 innings.
Tingelstad, 23, also joined Tacoma last week, collecting four hits — including a triple in his Triple-A debut Thursday — and two RBI in his first four games.
“Growing up I went to a lot of AquaSox games, Mariners games, Rainiers games,” he said. “So, it’s just fun for me to be able to play for a couple of those teams now, and getting the experience and playing in front of the fans everywhere.”
Following his high school career at Marysville-Pilchuck, Tingelstad also played a pair of seasons at Everett CC before playing one more at Louisiana-Monroe.
He was drafted by Seattle in the 22nd round in 2019 and returned to Everett that summer to play the Short-A season with the AquaSox.
Tingelstad played in 76 games with Low-A Modesto last season, then in four games with Arkansas this spring before returning to the Pacific Northwest again.
“It was an awesome feeling to be drafted by the hometown team, the team I grew up rooting for, so I’m rooting for them even harder now,” he said.
Fairchild, 26, is the latest to return to the region and join the Rainiers. Following his career at Seattle Prep, he was a three-time ACC selection and an All-American at Wake Forest and was drafted in the second round by the Reds in 2017.
He played three seasons in Cincinnati’s system before spending last season in Arizona’s and debuted with the Diamondbacks in July. He appeared in 12 games with the big league club last summer.
Fairchild was designated for assignment last week but was added to the Mariners’ 40-man roster four days later after he was acquired from Arizona in exchange for cash considerations.
Two of the four local products returning to the Pacific Northwest — Fairchild and Souza — have played Triple-A games in Tacoma before, though always with an opposing team. Along with O’Brien and Tingelstad, both debuted at Cheney Stadium this spring for the first time as a Rainier.
“It’s awesome,” Fairchild said. “I love it here. Just the feel of the stadium. Usually there’s a good crowd here. The fans love it. They’re into it. It’s a fun place to play, for sure.”
TACOMA TO SEATTLE
Three weeks into the schedule, four players who started the season with Tacoma have joined the big league club in Seattle.
Reliever Matt Koch — who tossed an immaculate inning for Tacoma in the club’s season-opener earlier this month — was the first selected by the big league club April 13 and has pitched three scoreless inning for Seattle, allowing one hit and no walks while striking out three.
Infielder Donovan Walton was recalled by the Mariners on April 16 and scored what turned out to be the game-winning run of Saturday night’s win over the Royals as a pinch runner in his first appearance of the season.
Infielder Mike Ford was selected by the major league club Tuesday, April 19, but did not appear in a game, was optioned postgame Sunday and designated for assignment Monday.
Reliever Penn Murfee was called up Wednesday but has not appeared in a game. His first outing would be his big league debut.
ON TAP
The Rainiers (5-13) are looking for their first series win of the season after dropping five of six to visiting Sugar Land last week, and losing earlier series to Salt Lake and Albuquerque.
Tacoma begins the first of two 12-game road trips this season Tuesday in Las Vegas before then heading to Salt Lake. The club plays both the Aviators (A’s affiliate) and Bees (Angels affiliate) for six games each.
The Rainiers return home May 10 for a six-game set against the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks affiliate).
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
