Featured Image Courtesy of Tim Campbell

Baseball has many aspects that make it such a grand ole game, but, one of my favorites is the process it forces young athletes to follow. While modern technology is producing a focus on instant results, baseball continues to show that “lasting” success is built over time, without shortcuts, and is the result of real work done every day. When young players who possess a professional level of talent also learn to put in a professional amount of work, that’s when “long-lasting” success is built. Justin Yurchak is an infielder in the Dodgers organization who is all of the above. He is known as a tireless worker, one that is all about helping his team, and, well, he’s also an extremely talented left-handed hitter.

Shenendehowa High

Yurchak grew up in Albany, New York, and had the great fortune of playing for Greg Christodulu who built Shenendehowa into a powerhouse, Under his guidance, Shen baseball has been to the Sectional Championship game 6 times, and is the only program to win Sectional 2 in back-to-back years, both being while Yurchak was a Plainsman. The program has also produced 6 draft picks, one being Yurchak, and Christodulu has been recognized as the New York Coach of the Year 4 different times. Yurchak learned how to win in his prep career and also became known as a tireless worker that shows up every day ready to get better. Here is what Tom Walter, his coach at Wake Forest had to say about the young New York native.

Justin is what we coaches like to call a lunch pail and hard hat player. He doesn’t do anything flashy but every day he shows up and outworks people and everyday he does something to help the ball club win.

Incredible Prep

Yurchak had a standout High School career in which he was recognized with a long list of awards. Coming out of Shenendehowa, he was ranked as the #4 Short Stop in New York by Perfect Game, was selected for the 2013 ABCA High School Rawlings Gold Glove Team, and was also selected for the 2013 ABCA Rawlings High School Region 1 All-American Team. He was also a 1st Team All-State shortstop as nominated by the New York State Sports Writers Association, the 2013 Suburban Council Player of the Year, the Albany Times Union Athlete of the Year, the 2013 Troy Player of the Year, and was the MVP of his High School team that won the Section II championship. He was a great player that had a bunch of offers, and after a successful freshman year at Wake Forest, the Clifton Park native transferred to Binghamton where he fit in right away.

Binghamton was the school that I visited in High School and I loved the coaches there, and the facilities were ahead of the game. It’s even better now, and I just felt like that was the place for me, and it felt like home there, so I loved my time there and it was a good choice.

On To College

After a very successful Freshman year at Wake Forest in which he started in 47 games and hit .312 with an on-base percentage of .424, Yurchak decided to move back closer to home and transferred to Binghamton. In 2017, as a Draft Eligible Redshirt Sophomore, the sweet-swinging lefty hit .320, had an on-base percentage of .474, an OPS over .900, and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 12th Round of the 2017 draft.

White Sox to Dodgers

After getting drafted in 2017, Yurchak spent the remainder of that year in Rookie ball, then spent all of 2018 in A ball with the Kannapolis Cannonballs, before being traded to the Dodgers for Manny Banuelos in the winter of 2018. As a Dodger, the left-handed hitting Binghampton Alum split time in 2019 between Rookie ball Ogden where he hit .365, and Low A Great Lakes where he recorded a .292 batting average. After the 2020 season got canceled, Yurchak started 2021 in High A Great Lakes, then was moved to AA Tulsa in August where he hit .383 with an OPS of .940. As incredible as those numbers are, they are made even more unbelievable when you consider that he hit just .095 in his first 14 games in May. Here’s what he had to say about getting so hot at the end of 2021.

It was funny, the season didn’t start so great for me but a couple balls fell here and there and things started rolling and it was nice once I got to Tulsa to hit behind guys like Miguel Vargas because you get great pitches to hit. We had a great lineup 1-9 and it made it easy to hit and when everyone is hitting you hit too so that made it much easier last year.

2022

Yurchak has spent the entire 2022 season in Tulsa, and although he got off to a slow start, he is starting to really heat things up. So far in July, he is hitting .422 with an OPS of 1.119, he had 4 hits in the last game before the break, and he has hits in all 12 games this month. Although guys like James Outman, Ryan Noda, Miguel Vargas, Jacob Amaya, and Michael Busch have already been moved to AAA OKC, the Drillers still have one of the most talented teams in the Minor Leagues, and being a part of a team that has so much talent has been fun for Yurchak.

We have a pretty incrediblle lineup and a lot of guys are swinging it really, really well, so it’s a lot of fun to be a part of this team and to be in the lineup.

Finishing Up

Although Yurchak has consistently shown that he can post very high Averages and on-base percentages, some think that, as a corner infielder, he needs to add a little more power to his game to maximize his potential. The Dodgers are one of the best developmental organizations in the game, and for good reason, they evaluate each player and put a plan in place to maximize their abilities. Here’s how Dylan Nasiatka, Great Lakes hitting coach, says that Craig Wallenbrock describes how they evaluate the type of hitter each player should be.

Hitters are like different sized cups. You know, a hitter like Mike Trout or Miguel Cabrera is a Big Gulp, and a Big Gulp that is darn near full. But, if you have a 12 ounce cup and you fill it up you know, you’re doing pretty good and there’s a lot of players in the Big Leagues with 12 ounce cups that are doing just fine. But, what we don’t want to have happen is for a player to have a Big Gulp sized cup and only have 6 ounces in it because you’re trying to do something you’re not capable of.

So, not every corner infielder has to be a Big Gulp, and the fact that Yurchak doesn’t hit a ton of home runs doesn’t automatically mean he’s a 12-ounce cup either. He’s a great combination of both because he can hit for a high average, get on base a lot, but then also post an above-average OPS. That, in my opinion, makes for a great offensive player, one that will contribute in a whole bunch of different ways and on a consistent basis.