By Jack Ankony
By the end of his first professional baseball game in 2014, the crowd was showering Grant Kay with MVP chants.
It was Kids Day at Dutchess Stadium, the home of the Single-A Hudson Valley Renegades, and Kay did his part in inspiring the younger generation of baseball players. Kay homered in his first at bat, and as he approached the batter’s box in the bottom of the eighth inning, he was one step away from achieving one of baseball’s most rare hitting feats.
Kay remembers the group of children seated along the third base line chanting “MVP, MVP,” before his final at bat. Kay swung, made contact and found a gap in the outfield. He hustled his way to third base, completing the final leg of the cycle.
“When I hit the triple, they were going nuts,” Kay said. “I gave them a little point, but the fact that it was Kids Day and I had a couple baseball fans cheering up there was pretty fun.”
Being a student of the game, Kay studied the pitches his teammates were seeing in the few games before his first start. He noticed a majority of fastballs, which led to his approach of being simple and early. Kay’s gameplan was spot on as he recorded five hits, all of which came on fastballs.
This approach worked all year long for Kay in 2014, as he finished his first professional season with a .314 batting average. He recorded 25 hits in his first 14 games for Hudson Valley, which helped build confidence moving forward.
Over the next seven seasons, Kay played at nearly every level of the minor leagues, the Dominican Winter League and even the Australian Baseball League. But what has kept Kay in lineups — and where he provides value for the Dogs in 2021 — is his ability to play all over the field, coupled with the simple and early approach he used to hit for the cycle in his first professional game.
Kay began his collegiate career at Iowa Western Community College, where he helped the Reivers win the 2012 National Championship. This propelled him to playing at the University of Louisville, where he batted .285 with five home runs, 35 RBI and 23 stolen bases in one season, but at times questioned his value defensively.
Kay was forced to play a lot at first base, a position in which he wasn’t too comfortable. He had to scrap his way to make the lineup each day and struggled to understand his value as a utility player. That changed when he was drafted in the 27th round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.
“I got to the Rays system and they really valued guys like me who could move around and were athletes,” Kay said. “I went from being just okay at every position and thinking that was a bad thing, to being okay at every position and that having a lot of value in pro ball, which was pretty cool to see.”
Kay spent his first three years of professional baseball at various levels of Single-A, which he admitted was a tough grind at times. In addition to the Hudson Valley Renegades, Kay also played for the Bowling Green Hot Rods and Charlotte Stone Crabs at the Single-A level.
“When everything is going well, it’s great and it’s fun, but when it’s going bad you can get in a dark place and it can be tough,” Kay said.
And because Kay didn’t sign for much money with the Rays initially, he always had to work other jobs to break even during the offseason. This spanned from driving for UberEats to working early mornings for a window washing company to hosting baseball camps and clinics to make ends meet.
Through the highs and lows, Kay has learned to look up to the veterans on the roster. One of the most impactful things that has rubbed off on Kay from these players is the mentality of being a pro every single day. Kay said it’s important to flush the bad days and keep a level head.
“Coming in off an 0-for-4 day, you’re not going to see me pouting or anything,” Kay said. “I’m going to take that on the chin and move forward, and I think that’s definitely going to help me in my career moving forward.”
The highest level of the Rays’ system Kay reached was in 2017 when he played five games for the Triple-A Durham Bulls. He made the most of his opportunity, logging five hits in 14 at bats, but he was sent back down to Double-A to finish the season. With the Montgomery Biscuits, Kay blasted seven home runs, drove in 54 runs and stole 14 bases, which led to the opportunity to play what he considers the highest level of baseball of his career in the winter of 2017-2018.
Although he didn’t know it at the time, Kay was teammates with one of the MLB’s future stars that winter. Kay played for Estrellas de Oriente of the Dominican Winter League, and was teammates with Fernando Tatis Jr. when the current San Diego Padres shortstop was just 18 years old. Tatis Jr. wasn’t projected to be the All Star, MVP-caliber, $340 million contract-man that he is today, but Kay said parts of Tatis Jr.’s game revealed definite potential.
“[Tatis Jr.] was a really, really good athlete and he had a really good arm,” Kay said. “His bat wasn’t quite there yet, but you could see flashes of really being great.”
That winter, Tatis Jr. played just 17 games for Estrellas de Oriente and still hadn’t reached his full potential, finishing the season with a .246 batting average, one home run and three RBI.
But Tatis Jr. started to catch the eyes of MLB scouts in the summer of 2018 as a member of the Double-A San Diego Missions, where he hit 16 home runs, drove in 43 runs, stole 16 bases and hit .286. Tatis Jr. was called up to the big leagues for the 2019 season where his stellar defense, electric base running and home run pop was on full display on a national stage.
“He made some really good plays at shortstop, any backhand that he made he just had the arm strength,” Kay said. “You really see how the Dominicans come up and how they work with their defense. He really worked for it and it’s showing today.”
Kay’s baseball journey has been anything but typical, and his motivation to keep pushing stems from an injury that forced him to relearn how to throw a baseball. Just weeks before he was invited to MLB spring training in 2018, Kay injured the shoulder of his right (throwing) arm.
In March 2018, Kay underwent shoulder surgery and spent a year rehabbing with the goal of continuing his baseball career. But as his rehab progress hit a wall, Kay and the doctors realized that his initial injury was misdiagnosed. Because of this, Kay had to get another shoulder surgery in March of 2019.
“I was rehabbing the wrong thing for over a year and really just backpedaling,” Kay said. “Once I got the right surgery and I was able to move forward, it was tough, but it definitely made me feel grateful to still be playing the game.”
This injury, along with multiple surgeries, led to Kay being sidelined for nearly two full seasons, but he was able to return during the 2019 season where he played for Double-A Montgomery Biscuits and the GCL Rays in Rookie Ball.
After sniffing a shot at the big leagues in 2017 when Kay reached Triple-A, it would have been easy for him to dwell on this injury as an excuse. But as he regained his health over the past few seasons, the injury actually motivates Kay.
“That’s really what’s keeping me going,” Kay said. “I still feel good. I still feel young. I still feel like I’m going to get 20 stolen bases this year. It’s hard to give up the dream, especially when you have played at such a high level and you felt like you were that close.”
Now in his first year with the Chicago Dogs, Kay hopes his versatility and simple approach at the plate can get him in the lineup on a daily basis. Kay mainly appeared at second base for the Dogs during spring training, but he remains willing to play all over the diamond.
“Being a utility player creates value for me and helps the team,” Kay said.
And it’s clear that Dogs manager Butch Hobson sees this value in Kay, too. Last season, Kay was often in the opposing dugout as a member of the Sioux Falls Canaries and was 7-for-12 at the plate at Impact Field in 2020.
Kay said this offseason that he really wanted to play in a nice stadium, so he naturally gave Hobson a call to play at Impact Field. Hobson called back right away, and Kay said he couldn’t have been more happy to sign on with the Dogs.
“This is an absolutely beautiful stadium,” Kay said. “I love the group of guys that are here and the coaching staff. This is where I wanted to be.”