January 20, 2023

By Evan Christie

Canadian Baseball Network

In the 2013 offseason, Andrew Albers found himself in a difficult situation.

After being drafted by the San Diego Padres in 2008, the North Battleford, Sask., native required Tommy John surgery and missed the entirety of 2009, so despite a fantastic five games in Rookie ball, the Padres let him go.

He then had a strong year with Les Capitales de Quebec in the independent Can-Am Association, helping them win the league title over the Pittsfield Colonials. This put him on the radar of the Minnesota Twins, who signed him to a minor league contract.

He made the majors with the Twins in 2013 and pitched well, throwing a combined 17 1/3 scoreless innings in his first two starts, and finishing with a 4.05 ERA in 10 starts.

But following the season, the Twins had a roster overhaul, especially in the pitching department, and with Albers now a free agent, he felt like the odd man out. Then, to his surprise, the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles came calling.

For those unfamiliar with the KBO, the Eagles are historically one of the worst franchises in league history. Despite being one of the league’s oldest franchises, they have only made the Korean Series five times, and only won it once, all the way back in 1999. Since 2007, they’ve only made the playoffs once, in 2017. This is despite having current Blue Jay Hyun-jin Ryu as their ace until 2012.

After losing ace Denny Bautista to the LMB’s Olmecas de Tabasco, they were looking for a replacement, and to them, Albers fit that mold.

It didn’t go well. Albers was in some respects the ace, as he led the team with 107 strikeouts and a FIP of 4.22, but he still put up a 5.89 ERA, and a 6-13 record.

If it’s any consolation, the offensive environment of the KBO in 2014 was one of the highest on record, with the ERA title going to Samsung Lions ace Rick van den Hurk, who had a 3.18 ERA. While van den Hurk was grabbed by the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks, Albers had to cut his losses and return to the North American minors, this time with the Toronto Blue Jays.

He started with triple-A Buffalo and pitched well, earning a callup in May, but only logged one appearance before being sent back down. Again a free agent at the end of the season, he returned to independent ball, making one start for the Lancaster Barnstormers of the Atlantic League before the Twins once again signed him, bringing him back on with the triple-A Rochester Red Wings. He earned another big league callup but struggled in six appearances and would sign a minor league contract with the Braves in the offseason.

After logging a fantastic four months with the Gwinnett Braves, in which he went 12-3 with a 2.61 ERA in 26 appearances (17 starts), the Mariners traded for him in hopes of shoring up their rotation. He would impress with Seattle, logging a 3.51 ERA in nine appearances. This drew the attention of NPB’s Orix Buffaloes, and he’d sign with them in the offseason.

Like the aforementioned Hanwha Eagles, the Buffaloes were perennial basement dwellers. Since the Orix-Kintetsu merger in 2004, the team had only cobbled together two playoff appearances, once in 2008 and once in 2014.

However, the Buffaloes were coming off their best season since 2014 and were looking to shore up their roster for a possible playoff push, as most pundits predicted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters would crash and burn in the absence of Shohei Ohtani.

Albers would have the best season of his career.

He was the No. 2 starter behind ace Yuki Nishi and pitched well, putting up a 9-2 record and a 3.08 ERA. While his 2.4 WAR may not jump out at you, it made him the seventh best pitcher in the Pacific League, and the best among foreign players, including old KBO foe van den Hurk.

This earned him his first all-star appearance, making him the second Canadian to be so honoured after Yomiuri Giants reliever Scott Mathieson (Aldergrove, BC), despite all-star caliber seasons from Rob Ducey (Cambridge, Ont.) and Nigel Wilson (Oshawa, Ont.) in the 90s and early 2000s.

In fact, out of the 1,230 or so foreign players who’ve suited up for NPB clubs, Albers is one of only 70 that were named all-stars in their first NPB campaign, the most recent being Yomiuri Giants outfielder Adam Walker in 2022.

The Buffaloes finished fourth in the PL, eight games back of the Fighters. But Albers would earn a two-year extension with the Buffaloes.

However, he was battling a back injury, and after a slow start to the 2019 season, he was demoted to the minors to rehab in May. He would be reactivated in August but it continued to nag him. He’d finish the year with an ERA over 5.00. But he still was above replacement level, and by now the Buffaloes had crashed back to last place, so they felt comfortable enough to keep him on and finish his contract.

After getting surgery in the offseason to fix his back, Albers returned to the Buffaloes in 2020 and once again assumed the role of No. 2 starter, this time backing up 21-year-old ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. While his ERA of 3.91 was nowhere near that of Yamamoto, he was still a solid starter, mostly hampered by the Buffaloes’ atrocious offense, which was basically Masataka Yoshida, Takahiro Okada, Adam Jones and a bunch of guys whose bats were basically overboiled noodles.

Since job security as a foreign player in Asia is only really afforded to the best of the best, Albers’ contract was not renewed with the Buffaloes. They replaced him with Mexican pitcher Cesar Vargas.

If it’s any consolation to Albers, while the Buffaloes did go on to win back-to-back pennants and the 2022 Japan Series without him, Cesar Vargas was not a part of that. In fact, by some metrics, he is the worst foreign pitcher in club history.

Albers once again returned to the Twins in 2021, and despite pitching well with triple-A St. Paul, his major league stint did not go well, and his contract was not renewed. While he hasn’t officially signed his retirement papers, it’s pretty safe to say that the 37-year-old’s career in major-pro baseball is over.

Guys like Andrew Albers aren’t really that unique in the landscape. For every Jacob DeGrom, Alek Manoah, and Gerrit Cole, there are 100s of pitchers that have to scratch and claw to just get that shot at glory.

Albers pitched in five countries, on three continents, and for nine different organizations. He embodied the grind that most fans of baseball don’t see. He experienced the highs and lows of pro ball and grew not only as a player but as a person.

To get personal for a second, I got the chance to speak to Albers at an event hosted by Baseball Canada. While I had intended to use quotes from him in this piece, I ended up messing up my recording. Still, Albers came off as one of the most humble, down to earth people I’ve ever met.

He was my second face to face interview, after IndyCar Driver Christian Lundgaard. While I was comfortable talking to Lundgaard thanks to the similarity in our ages, I was incredibly nervous when I first approached Albers. He was able to make me feel at ease immediately and had such a genuine passion for the sport, it made the interview go very smoothly, besides the audio mess up.

People like Albers are what makes the sport appealing to so many. Through all the fanfare, the suspense, and the drama that surrounds the game, those entertainers who take the field every day are, throughout everything, normal people who just happen to be very good at the sport. It’s something that is very easy to forget.