Like many 20-somethings, Kellin Deglan is off to Australia on an adventure.
But while others his age are there to explore the Land Down Under and backpack their way through the popular travel destination, Deglan is there with one goal in mind: developing his baseball game to help further his career advance to the next level.
The 22-year-old is off to Australia, where he will play for the Melbourne Aces in the Australian Baseball League.
The ABL is a six-team league with a 13-game regular season schedule that goes from the end of this month until late January.
He chatted with The Times earlier this month while home visiting his family in Langley, before heading off to Arizona — where he is based in the off-season — and then to Australia.
It was Deglan’s idea to play through the winter, and was fully supported by the Texas Rangers, the Major League Baseball organization which drafted him four years ago.
The Rangers selected Deglan in the first round (22nd overall) out of the Langley Blaze Premier Baseball program and after he graduated from R.E. Mountain Secondary that June, he signed to play professionally in the Rangers organization.
Chasing his dream of playing in the big leagues has been a slow process for the six-foot-two, 195-pounder.
“When I first signed, yeah, I thought I would be up there at 22, 23 years old,” he admitted.
“I have had my ups and downs so far in my young career, but it has been a good ride and I am enjoying it and getting better every season.”
The average age of a Major League Baseball player is 27, and according to Baseball Prospectus, players making their major league debut as catchers — Deglan’s position — tend to be just a shade under 25 years old.
The hardest thing about the life of a pro ball player has been maintaining consistency over a 140-game season, Deglan said.
“Every day is a new challenge, you only get one, maybe two off-days a month.
“You have to bring it every day.”
Altogether, he has played 403 games over five seasons of minor league ball.
This past season was spent primarily with the Single-A Hickory Crawdads (North Carolina) of the South Atlantic League, with some time at Single-A Advanced level with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (South Carolina) of the Carolina League.
Combined in the 101 games he played in 2014, Deglan hit .247 with a .314 on-base percentage and a .450 slugging percentage. While his on-base percentage was bang on for his career average, the other two represented career highs.
And with increased production, it should come as little surprise that Deglan said this past season has been his most fun.
“I played the most I have played in my career, I was getting consistent at-bats,” he said.
It also proved that the work he did last off-season on improving his swing mechanics, paid off.
“I have to give a lot of credit to my hitting coach (Bobby Rose), he helped me a lot,” Deglan said.
“I was just consistent and had a lot of big hits, a lot of RBIs.”
One game back in June with Hickory really stands out.
In that contest, Deglan went 3-for-5 with two home runs — including a grand slam — and seven RBIs.
He finished the season with 16 home runs, 68 RBIs and nearly 46 per cent of his hits (42 of 92) went for extra-bases. All of those numbers were career-bests.
Defensively — playing one of the most demanding positions — Deglan has excelled, with a career .988 fielding percentage. He has also thrown out 29 per cent of would-be base stealers (113 out of 389 stolen base attempts).
“Catching takes a toll on the body,” he admitted. “You have to do a lot of stretching and all that to take care of yourself or else you will be in pain all year.”
And Deglan knows defence is likely his ticket to the big leagues.
“They (Texas) like me behind the plate, they like my defence,” he said.
“They told me they wanted to see more consistency this year and I was.
“My defence is pretty solid right now; I just have to keep working on my offence.”
As for any lingering doubts about his career progression, Deglan said he just has to continue working hard.
“We have had a lot of changes in our organization — I am on my third farm director since I signed — everybody’s plan is different,” he said.
“My path has been slowed a little bit but I feel good with how my game has progressed year by year. I am feeling more and more confident about my game. I am just going to try and not worry about putting a time line in place and just keep going out and playing.”
“Guys are getting opportunities and a lot of my friends are moving up,” he added. “I just have to keep plugging away.”