A little more than a decade ago, Jabari Blash was a carefree teenager from the Virgin Islands who, as he put it, couldn’t “see past the water in front of me.” He’d participated in Pee-Wee and Little League competition, but a few years had passed since he spent much time on a baseball field. When a program was started for local youth players, Blash put on a glove again, albeit unwillingly.

“Honestly, my mom made me go,” Blash said. “The sun was hot, I was lazy. I preferred to be with my friends. At times, I would purposely leave my bag home with all my equipment, and she would go behind my back and put it in the car.”

Monday morning, Blash stood in front of his locker at the Peoria Sports Complex reflecting on how far he’d come and how far he still has to go. The Padres acquired him over the winter as what essentially amounted to a lottery ticket. He was asked if, at age 26, he has room for growth.

“Oh, for sure,” Blash said with a wide grin, which is how he says most things. “That’s the scary part. I know that I have a long way to go, a lot to learn.”


Monday afternoon, Blash stood in the batter’s box at Maryvale Baseball Park, a 6-foot-5 coil of taut muscle and intriguing ability. He had gone hitless in his first six Cactus League at-bats, with four strikeouts and three walks. His power, his defining trait, had been confined to batting practice.

With the count 3-0, Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Taylor Jungmann aimed a fastball at the outer half of the plate. With a resounding thwack, Blash lined an opposite-field home run over the wall in right. A torrent of puns on Blash’s distinct surname materialized on Twitter and other social-media feeds.

“When he runs into a baseball, it’s a lot of damage,” manager Andy Green said after the game, an 8-2 win for the Padres. “He didn’t even square it up completely, so you realize how much power he has inside of himself.”

Perhaps as much as any player in San Diego’s camp, Blash has been a source of springtime fascination. The Padres, after a disappointing 2015, lost All-Star left fielder Justin Upton to free agency. They have gone the inexpensive route in compiling replacement options. The greatest potential return on investment, and the greatest unknown, is represented in a toolsy athlete from a 31-square-mile patch of land in the Caribbean.


San Diego Padres’ Jabari Blash celebrates at home after hitting a home run off Milwaukee Brewers’ Taylor Jungmann during the second inning of a spring training baseball game Monday, March 7, 2016, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

As recently as 2005, Blash, a St. Thomas native, was the furthest thing from a baseball player. Darren Canton, the founder and director of the Virgin Islands Future Star program, recalls first impressions of the then-high school sophomore were not favorable.

“I thought he was lazy,” Canton, an associate scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks, said. “He was playing around. It looked like he was moving in slow motion.”

Canton grew up in New York, was recruited to play college baseball by renowned San Diego State coach Jim Dietz, wound up at Barry University in Miami and eventually moved to his family’s home, the Virgin Islands. In a place where sports comes second to tourism, Canton set about making baseball a post-high school possibility. He taught the game’s fundamentals, organized showcases, conversed with scouts looking for both college and professional players.


Gradually, with encouragement from Canton and his mother, Blash grew more serious about the sport. The turning point may have come when he began to hear about strangers coming to his games, their interest piqued by Blash’s tall, projectable frame.

“We didn’t have anyone from the islands in the big leagues, so I really didn’t see the big picture early on,” Blash said. “Then, junior year of high school, some scouts started to notice me, and it was like, well, damn, I can really do something with this.”

In a testament to his raw talent, Blash was drafted out of high school in the 29th round by the Chicago White Sox. Knowing he needed refinement, Blash headed to Alcorn State University but sat out his entire year there due to academic transcript issues. He subsequently transferred to Miami-Dade College and in his first season of college baseball, hit .353 with 10 home runs over 102 at-bats.

“The biggest improvement,” Canton said, “was he got really into weight training. He got so much faster and stronger.”


Blash was drafted again in 2009, this time in the ninth round by Texas. He opted to stay in school another year. Finally, in 2010, Seattle took him in the eighth round.

His minor league career, covering six seasons since, has been marked by serious displays of power — across all levels, he slugged .500, including a Triple-A-leading .640 last year — and a constant education competing alongside more seasoned players. A decent walk rate has been accompanied by what might be described as an alarming strikeout percentage.

“He’s still very raw in the fact that he hasn’t played a long time,” Padres hitting coach Alan Zinter said. “He needs to just understand how to control his timing because when he unlocks his body at the right time, he attacks the ball in a really good position. When he misses a couple of his windows to move his body, then his front side takes over, and he’s inconsistent with his swing pitch and pitch recognition.”

The Mariners, well aware of Blash’s present limitations, exposed him to the Rule 5 draft in December. Oakland took him sixth overall and immediately sent him to the Padres as the player to be named in the Drew Pomeranz-Yonder Alonso trade. Blash’s status as a Rule 5 pickup means he must stay on the 25-man roster all season or be offered back to Seattle for $25,000.


Of course, he’ll first have to make the team out of spring training.

“There’s a power projection there that doesn’t take a very intelligent person to see,” Green said. “He’s got a lot ahead of him. He’s got to earn it, and we’ve been real upfront about that, but I think when you look at the baseball field and say ‘where’s the stud athlete,’ you immediately see him.

“The great thing about him is he’s got an attitude to get better, a hunger to learn.”

For Blash, who couldn’t name much more than a dozen major leaguers several years ago, the checklist includes things that have become second-nature to many of his peers, such as knowing when to hit the cutoff man or when to air out a throw from the corner.


“Small things like that is where I still need to work on, I still need to develop and get better at,” he said.

In his quest for his first major league job, he already has received unprecedented opportunity. Monday, he played all nine innings and brought his Cactus League total to 10 at-bats, one more than he took in either of the last two springs. Besides the home run, he also flied out to the warning track in center field.

Evidently, the Padres are eager to see what they have. Back home, a mentor is beaming.

“It’s like watching a son,” Canton said. “I’m always confident in him; there’s no doubt he can play at the highest level. ... We’re proud of him. The whole Virgin Islands is glad for his success.”


Blash isn’t the only Virgin Islander on a 40-man roster these days. There’s also Mets pitcher Akeel Morris and Dodgers righty Jharel Cotton. All three are alumni of the Future Stars program, though Blash was the first to be drafted.

“A lot of the locals are happy for the opportunity I have,” Blash said. “Either way, they’re finally able to see me play. ... It’s good that a lot of kids can have a dream and know that, even though they’re from little St. Thomas and there’s not much in front of them, if they keep going, there’s a lot they can accomplish.”