DJ Stewart rode the bus from Sarasota to Fort Myers devoid of much fanfare, just one in a large group of minor leaguers carried as extra players for the first half of a split-squad road game Thursday.
He relishes the exposure to the major league players on the trips as he prepares to begin his first full professional season. But Stewart, a near-consensus All-American outfielder at Florida State before the Orioles made him their 2015 first-round draft pick, knows that all his accolades have been stripped away.
In a quest for the only true accomplishment that matters at this stage — major league success — he's also stripped himself of the most distinguishable trait he carried from a decorated amateur career.