A most unique journey finally takes Nick Trabacchi to affiliated professional baseball

CEDAR RAPIDS - His college baseball career began at Maryland-Baltimore County and ended at NCAA Division II Shepherd University in West Virginia. Not exactly big-time powerhouses.

The best earned run average he posted either place was 5.74.

He began his professional career as a Train Robber. That’d be the independent Bakersfield Train Robbers of the Pecos League.

Click on that league’s website, and the first thing you see is “Players Needed For 2025 Season.” True story.

Then it was on to the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, where he had an ERA of 18.00 in five games. A stint followed with the Empire State Greys of the Frontier League, a club that played all road games and had an 18-77 record.

After a couple of games with the Charleston (W.V.) Dirty Birds, the next stop was Hagerstown, Md., with the Hagerstown Flying Boxcars back in the Atlantic League. Some good time was spent north of the border as a member of the Capitales de Quebec, where he won an Atlantic League championship.

The New Jersey Jackals were up next, back to the Frontier League. And then for Nick Trabacchi it was ... the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

A contract with the Minnesota Twins, finally a shot for a 26-year-old pitcher with one of the most unique paths ever to affiliated ball.

“It has definitely been a pretty crazy ride,” Trabacchi said, following the Kernels’ 5-4, 10-inning win over Wisconsin at Veterans Memorial Stadium. “I had to start from the literal bottom of professional baseball and kind of work my way up to get here. But I mean I’m grateful for every opportunity. Every moment has taught me a lot about the game, life, myself. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

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Trabacchi has been good for Cedar Rapids since joining it May 30, posting a save and 1.50 ERA in nine appearances. The West Islip, N.Y., native went 1 1/3 innings Sunday without allowing a run, has thrown well enough to begin earning opportunities late in tight games.

“The guys here are awesome, the staff is awesome,” Trabacchi said. “They made me feel comfortable right away. To go into an incredibly unfamiliar environment in so many senses, going from indy ball to affiliated ball, going to Iowa, getting into here, everyone had open arms, and they made me feel super comfortable, made it an easy transition.”

Trabacchi’s fastball has carry and been up to 94 miles per hour. He also throws a slider, sweeper and changeup.

His repertoire has changed a lot from the beginning of his career, when he was a self-described sinker-slider guy.

“He’s a sponge right now, always asking questions of A.J. and Hunter and trying to find things in his body that he can get to to unleash more velocity,” said Kernels Manager Brian Meyer, referring to C.R. co-pitching coaches A.J. Angulo and Hunter Townsend. “I remember his first outing up in Wisconsin he was 90 to 92 (miles per hour). He came out last week in Peoria and was 94, 95. He has really done a great job of coming in and asking the right questions. He is being super inquisitive and then applying it.”

Trabacchi said he has learned things from many people in his journey, has never been shy to bounce ideas off teammates, some of whom played in the major leagues. He mentioned guys like Mike Kickham, who has pitched in the bigs, and Chase Solesky, who is in Triple-A in the Washington Nationals organization.

Four seasons of independent baseball will test the resolve of anyone, but he has kept pitching, kept trying to improve.

“There have definitely been times where I kind of took a step back and looked at the big picture, was like ‘I’m 25, I’m 26 and still doing this. Am I ever going to get the chance?’ I thought maybe I should stop,” he said. “But you also kind of take another step back and think my friends and family believe in me, they’ve supported me. So if they keep believing in me and keep thinking that I can do this ...

“I’ve had current big leaguers and former big leaguers tell me ‘Hey, man, stay at it.’ That gives you a little extra push to keep doing it. I’m glad I listened to them.”

Real life can wait for Trabacchi. He’s basically going to keep pitching until they take his jersey away and don’t give him another one.

“I’ve been a lot of of places, a lot of cool places I never would have seen without baseball. That’s also something I’m super grateful for, being able to see different parts of the country,” he said. “This is always something you believe will happen, but it also seems so far fetched. When it actually happened, when I found out (the Twins wanted to sign him), it was such a surreal moment.

“I wanted to cry, tears of joy, but they didn’t want to come out. I wanted to scream in happiness, but I couldn’t talk. It was a lot, something where it all clicked and finally happened how I envisioned it going.”

Brandon Winokur’s one-out single in the bottom of the 10th scored Kyle DeBarge with the winning run for the Kernels, who are 53-36 overall and 13-10 in the Midwest League’s second half. Fort Wayne comes to town for a six-game series that begins Tuesday night.

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