Unlike a year ago, Andrew Albers knows where he will be heading to start off Spring Training.
The 31-year-old left-handed pitcher from North Battleford will be travelling to Florida next month as he has signed a one-year minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves.
“I wanted to get something done fairly quickly, especially compared to last year when I had to play independent baseball before signing with the (Minnesota) Twins in April,” Albers said.
“The Braves made an offer and it turned out to be a good fit. We made the deal on Boxing Day, so it was great to get that done and out of the way so I can get ready for the new season.”
Although Albers expects to start the 2017 season with the Gwinnett Braves, who are the AAA affiliate to the Braves, he believe he has a good chance of being part of the National League team’s roster at some point during the campaign, if he gets off to a good start.
“They are in a very similar situation to the Twins right now with a number of young players on their roster,” Albers said. “They are rebuilding a little bit, but they had a really good second half last year, which is very encouraging.
“One of my roles will be as a mentor to the prospects in their system. Even though it doesn’t feel that way sometimes, I’ve been around the game for a little while now and I’ll be able to pass along some of my knowledge to those players to help them make the transition to the major leagues.”
After putting up a 10-6 record with a 3.69 earned run average for the Rochester Red Wings in the AAA ranks last year, Albers was called up to the Twins roster late in the season.
He made six appearances on the mound, which included a pair of starts, and had a 0-0 record with a 5.82 earned run average in his second stint with the American League club.
“Given everything that happened at the start of the season when I didn’t have a deal in place, I was pretty happy with how things ended up,” Albers said.
“After some nagging injuries that caused me to lose some confidence in 2015, it was great to be able to prove to people that I could still pitch at this level. I didn’t do quite as well as I would have wanted in my opportunities with the Twins, but that’s how it goes sometimes, and now I have a chance to start the year with a big league organization in Atlanta.”
Albers will also have the chance to represent his country in March, as he’ll be playing for Canada at the World Baseball Classic.
“The opportunity to represent your country is something that I always cherish,” Albers said.
“We’re going to be in a tough group with the United States, the Dominican Republic, and a Columbia team that I think are going to surprise some people, but we’re going to be right in the mix with guys like Russell Martin, Michael Saunders and Justin Morneau in our lineup.”
