December 15—Travis Blankenhorn will don a new baseball uniform for the 2023 season.
But he’s not leaving the National League East.
The 2015 Pottsville Area High School graduate signed a minor-league deal with the Washington Nationals on Wednesday. The deal includes an invitation to major league spring training.
The 26-year-old spent last season in the New York Mets’ system, mostly at Triple-A Syracuse. He hit .268 (88-for-329) with 44 runs scored, 20 doubles, 15 homers, 55 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 91 games.
His season ended Aug. 27 when he suffered a dislocated elbow and tore his UCL and LCL crashing into the right-field wall in a game against the Worcester Red Sox. He had surgery a week later.
“I was a free agent this year and I weighed my options,” Blankenhorn said Wednesday night. “I felt the best fit for me was Washington.
“I’m looking for an opportunity to play and I felt like they could give me the best opportunity. I enjoyed talking with their front office and felt it was a good fit for me.”
The Nationals will be Blankenhorn’s sixth Major League organization since being drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the third round (No. 80 overall) of the 2015 Major League Baseball Amateur Player Draft.
Blankenhorn climbed his way through the Twins’ minor league system from 2015-19, playing 93 games in 2019 at Double-A Pensacola, where he hit .278 with 108 hits, 50 runs scored, 18 doubles, 18 homers, 51 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. Blankenhorn was placed on the Twins’ taxi squad when the minor league season was canceled in 2020, and made his major league debut Sept. 15, 2020, against the Chicago White Sox, going 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.
The former Crimson Tide three-sport standout bounced from Minnesota to the Los Angeles Dodgers to the Seattle Mariners to the New York Mets in a three-week span in May 2021 after being designated for assignment by the Twins. He saw action in 23 games with the big-league Mets, going 4-for-23 with a homer and four RBIs in limited action before finishing the 2021 campaign at Syracuse.
Last season, the 6-foot-2, 235-pounder was the International League’s Player of the Week for June 20-26 and the International League’s Player of the Month for June. He led the league in total bases (62) and OPS (1.160), was second in average (.402), hits (37), doubles (10), RBIs (24), on-base percentage (.486) and slugging percentage (.674) and was fifth in runs scored (22) in June.
He was called up to the majors for a short stint in July, going 0-for-3 in a July 22 loss to the San Diego Padres.
For his career, Blankenhorn has hit .258 over the course of seven seasons in the minors, collecting 584 hits in 2,266 at-bats, scoring 305 runs with 118 doubles, 24 triples, 81 homers, 334 RBIs and 51 stolen bases. He has a .330 on-base percentage and a .768 OPS. In two seasons in Triple-A, Blankenhorn has batted .260 with 25 homers, 90 RBIs, an on-base percentage of .347 and OPS of .809 in 598 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s 5-for-29 (.172) in 26 games in the majors with the Twins and Mets.
Blankenhorn played second base, left field, right field and designated hitter at Syracuse, but said he’s projected as an outfielder with the Nationals.
He said Wednesday he’s recovered from his surgery and anxious to begin a new chapter in his career.
“I got cleared about a week and a half ago,” Blankenhorn said. “I’m cleared for all (baseball) activities.”
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