Former Bellingham High baseball star Austin Shenton talks about his new life in the majors

Austin Shenton has spent a disproportionate amount of his time in the corners of the continental U.S. The Tampa Bay Rays infielder starred at Bellingham High School, before moving to the Sunshine State to play college baseball at Florida International University, and returning to Washington when he was drafted into the Seattle Mariners farm system in 2019.

“No matter how hard I try, Florida keeps sucking me back in,” Shenton said in a video call with the Bellingham Herald.

Shenton, who fittingly plays both corner infield positions, became the only current Major League Baseball player from Bellingham when he made the Rays’ opening day roster last month. After being sent to the minors only a few weeks earlier, Shenton was at the Rays’ stadium, Tropicana Field, when manager Kevin Cash called him to his office for a meeting.

“He cut right to the chase,” Shenton said. “He was just like, ‘Hey man, I’m not gonna try to play this one out. Congratulations, you made the opening day roster.’”

Then the Rays’ eighth-ranked prospect, Shenton made his big league debut days later, replacing first baseman Yandy Díaz late in a 9-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

“It’s funny, because I’ve definitely been more nervous since – just certain games you get a little nervy,” Shenton said. “That first game, my adrenaline just kicked in and it was one of those moments where you’re just so hyper-focused and so locked in that the nerves didn’t feel as bad.”

Shenton lined out to left field in his only plate appearance that day. But since then, he’s started three games and appeared off the bench in a fourth, collecting three hits, scoring two runs, and batting in one runner in the process.

Shenton, who’s starred at nearly every level of his career up until this point, said he’s still getting used to not being an everyday player.

“It’s the first time in your career you don’t really play every day,” Shenton said. “So you have to make the adjustment to still get in all your work, still be ready whenever you can, and just take advantage of those moments that you get to play.”

Even though he’s not playing every game, Shenton said he’s still adjusting to the grueling major league schedule.

“Everything that comes along with being a major league player is a lot,” Shenton said. “Our first road trip, we went to Colorado. So we go to Colorado, the altitude, we got three games there. Then after the game, we fly to L.A. and then play three games, no day in between… After that series in L.A. we got on a flight, five hours to go back to Saint [Petersburg], switching three time zones. And then we have an off day, but we got back at 2, 3 in the morning.”

Shenton’s path to the pros

For a player who was first drafted out of high school, Shenton’s path to the majors has been less than straightforward. At age two, he was put into foster care, before being adopted by his birth aunt and uncle.

“They took me in and they just gave us an opportunity to be quote-end-quote ‘normal kids,’” Shenton said. “We were always going from game to game, sport to sport growing up, it was a lot of that. It was a lot of time in the car with my parents and family, and going to games and whatnot.”

He turned into a star player at Bellingham High, where he hit for a .472 average his senior year. The highlight of his time there, though, wasn’t any particular on-field accomplishment.

“I got to play with a lot of my friends that I grew up with,” Shenton said. “We would play tennis baseball at Broadway Park, where we all grew up by. So just being able to do that, and growing up and then we’re playing varsity baseball together.”

He had initially committed to play his college ball at the University of Washington, but reconsidered after he was drafted by Cleveland in the 34th round of the 2016 MLB Draft.

While he didn’t turn pro right away, Shenton decommitted from UW to play at Bellevue College, since MLB rules allow junior college players to retain their draft eligibility.

From Bellevue, he transferred to Florida International University, where a former coach of his had taken a job as an assistant.

“I texted him and I was like, ‘Hey man, do you need a left-handed hitting third baseman?’ – just kind of messing with him because that’s the relationship we had,” Shenton said. “And then he was like, ‘Actually, we do.’”

After earning second-team all-conference honors in each of his two seasons with Florida International, Shenton was drafted by the Mariners in the fifth round of the 2019 MLB Draft.

But Florida came calling once again, and he was traded to the Rays in the middle of the 2021 season. For all the times he’s moved as far away from his hometown as possible, Shenton considers himself a northwesterner through and through.

“I love the northwest. I love Bellingham. It’s everything I want,” Shenton said. “Being away from home is probably the hardest part of what I do.”