Michael Broadway’s Long Journey Brings Him to Major League Mound
On Saturday, with the San Francisco Giants trailing 4-2 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, Michael Broadway took the mound in the seventh inning. He bent over at the waist, creating a 90 degree angle with his body, arm dangling freely as he looked in to his catcher Buster Posey to receive his signs. A long, winding journey brought Broadway to a major league mound for the very first time.
There’s no doubt that the six-foot-five, 235-pound right-hander paid his dues to get to this point. He was a fourth-round pick by the Atlanta braves in 2005, and spent seven seasons muddling through the Braves’ system. He reached Triple-A just once in that time, for 17 games in 2010, and never truly established himself as a consistent bullpen threat.
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After his time with Atlanta ended, Broadway bounced around minor league rosters, spending a season in the San Diego Padres’ system, and another in the Washington Nationals’. Broadways pitched well with the Nationals’ Double-A and Triple-A teams, posting a combined 2.45 ERA and 1.140 WHIP in 34 games, but never reached the goal that every player longs for: donning a major league uniform to make everything worth it.
Before the 2014 season, Broadway signed on with the Giants, but appeared in just eight games during the season, as he spent most of his time rehabbing a shoulder injury.
After the season ended is when he really established himself as a viable bullpen arm. Broadway played in the Venezuelan Winter League, and pitched in 15 games, posting a 1.12 ERA in 16 innings. He carried that success over into 2015.
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With the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, a very impressive 1.35 ERA and 0.825 WHIP made people within the Giants’ organization take notice. His 39 strikeouts, compared to just six walks, only made him more enticing.
After missing ample time in his minor league career with shoulder and elbow injuries, an injury to another player gave Broadway his big break. With Hunter Pence‘s surgically-repaired wrist still bothering him, he found himself on the disabled list, and Broadway was the benefactor. The Giants’ purchased his contract, putting him on the 40-man roster, and called him up to the major leagues for the first time in his career.
258 games and 478 innings in the minor league was all worth it. The journey from one small minor league city to another finally paid off.
While Broadway’s path to make it to this point was slow and tedious, his major league debut was anything but. He wasted no time getting through the teeth of the Diamondbacks’ lineup, throwing just 14 pitches in his one inning of work.
While on the mound, Broadway showed off exactly what brought him to the big dance. His first pitch out of the gates was a 96-mile per hour fastball for a strike to Arizona’s number-two hitter Jake Lamb. And that wasn’t an adrenaline fastball. If anything, he took some miles off the pitch. His next two pitches were sliders, at 89 and 88-mph, respectively. Both pitches were swung at, and both were missed, giving Broadway his first major league strikeout.
His next batter was Paul Goldschmidt, the bane of the Giants’ existence. Broadway reared back with a 97-mph fastball, that Goldschmidt swung through. Four pitches later, Broadway induced an easy pop-up to center field on another fastball at 97.
Yasmany Tomas took the batter’s box after, and saw three sliders in the high 80’s. Tomas hit the last one into center field for a single, glancing off Broadway’s arm on the way. His time on base didn’t last long, as Posey gunned him down at second as he attempted to steal the bag. Posey got a lot of help from another 97-mph fastball, one pitch after Broadway lit the radar gun up to 98.
After more than a decade of trying to make it, Broadway finished his outing in less than 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes were probably the best of his baseball career.
There’s no telling if Broadway will stick in the major leagues or not, but he’s shown that he has the raw stuff to help out a bullpen. His fastball can blow through bats, his slider can dance around them, and his will to stick with it is obviously there.
11 years of hard work paid off on Saturday, but that’s just the beginning for Broadway.