The 2019 season marks Rocco Baldelli’s 20th in professional baseball, and he has pretty much seen it all in his two decades of work.
Drafted by the Rays as the sixth overall selection of the 2000 draft, Baldelli was an incredible pure athlete who could do everything exceedingly well on a baseball field. He quickly became one of the Rays top prospects.
Following the 2002 season, he was named the second-best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America, and was also named their Minor League Player of the Year.
With the start of the 2003 season, at just 21 years of age, Baldelli had made it onto the Opening Day roster and made his Major League debut during an eventual Rays walk-off victory against the Boston Red Sox.