In 2010, the number one pick in the Major League Baseball draft was Bryce Harper.

Harper received a signing bonus of more than $6 million.

That same year, pick number 451 was a pitcher named Mike Bulsinger.

He got less than that.

I signed for $1,000 with a billion dollar organization,

so. A thousand dollars? I think it was $667 after taxes. So they don't have that much

invested in you? You make jokes about it. It's like a bucket of baseballs for them.

A player like Bryce Harper is basically assured of relatively quickly making it to the majors

and staying there. That wasn't true for Mike Bolsinger. As a 15th round pick,

Bolsinger only had about a 10% chance of ever playing in the majors at all. He would have to fight his way

up the minor league ladder through outposts like Reno and Yakima and Mobile.

It's a very lonesome time, especially in those lower levels when you're in cities that, you know,

aren't the best to be at. I mean, it's a team sport, but realistically you're trying to almost kind of look

out for yourself and do as good as you can so you can move up to the next level.

Against the odds, Bolsinger actually reached the big leagues in 2014 as a starting pitcher for

the Arizona Diamondbacks. Then he started bouncing around, between the majors and the minors and between organizations.

By 2017, he was with the Toronto Blue Jays, his third Major League team in three years.

He had become a journeyman, working to hold onto his place in baseball's precarious working class.

29 years old, so you're getting up there. You're not that prospect anymore.

I mean, I guess I was really never a prospect, so you're not that young anymore.

But in my eyes, it was, you know, how can I make these guys still want to stick with me?

Bollsinger was the type of player that a baseball reporter like me seldom writes about or pays attention to.

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