Alex Jackson

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Alexander James Jackson

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Biographical Information[edit]

Outfielder Alex Jackson was selected by the Seattle Mariners and scout Myron Pines in the first round of the 2014 amateur draft with the sixth overall selection. He soon signed and made his pro debut that summer with the AZL Mariners, hitting .280 in 24 games. He started the 2015 season with the Clinton LumberKings of the Midwest League, but after hitting .157 in 28 games, he was demoted to the Everett AquaSox of the Northwest League. There he hit .239 in 48 games, albeit with decent power (11 doubles and 8 homers). In 2016, he returned to Clinton to play 92 games. He hit .243/.332/.408 while playing mainly in right field. He scored 43 runs and drove in 55, but also struck out 103 times in 333 at-bats. On November 28th, the Mariners traded him to the Atlanta Braves in return for two young pitchers, Max Povse and Rob Whalen.

In 2017, the Braves turned him into a catcher and he hit a combined .267/.328/480 in 96 games, between the Florida Fire Frogs and Mississippi Braves. He showed a lot of power, with 21 doubles and 19 homers. However, he had a tough season in 2018, falling to .201/.286/.360 in 99 games. He was with Mississippi and the AAA Gwinnett Braves that season. He was back with Gwinnett at the start of 2019, but after 2 games, was called up to the major league Braves, making his debut on April 7th. He did not get a hit in 13 major league at-bats that first season, then in 2020 played another 5 games in the majors, going 2-for-7. These were his only competitive games that year, as the minor leagues were shut down by the Coronavirus pandemic, and were divided in two blocks: 3 at the very beginning of the season when both Braves catcher were temporarily available, and another 2 in mid-August.

In 2021, he made the team as the back-up to Travis d'Arnaud at the start of the season, but hit just .048 in 9 April games. Then, on May 1st, the Braves lost both catchers in the same game, d'Arnaud breaking his left thumb in the 6th inning and Jackson straining his hamstring in the 10th. Back with the Gwinnett Stripers on May 28th, he had a three-homer game, but wasn't able to come back to Atlanta, where William Contreras and Kevan Smith were sharing catching duties. The Braves then acquired veteran Stephen Vogt in a trade, and Jackson by now was way down the depth chart. On July 30th, he was traded to the Miami Marlins in return for OF Adam Duvall. He played 42 games for Miami, his longest major league stint to date, and batted .157 with 3 homers and 12 RBIs.

Just before the start of the 2022 season, on April 6th, he was traded again, this time to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers were in a quandary as projected back-up catcher Pedro Severino had just been handed an 80-game suspension for PED use the day before, and in trading for another experienced major league catcher in Victor Caratini, the Brewers had to give up one of their projected AAA catchers in Brett Sullivan. So they pulled off a second trade to acquire Jackson, who was not going to make the Marlins' opening day roster, in return for IF Hayden Cantrelle and P Alexis Ramirez. Jackson was immediately assigned to the AAA Nashville Sounds. He hit .226 in 31 games for Nashville, and also played 5 games in Milwaukee, going 3 for 12, but a sprained finger suffered right after his call-up to Milwaukee cost him a month of action in June, and a wrist inflammation ended his season in mid-August.

In 2023, he spent the entire season in the minor leagues, hitting .286 with 12 homers and 35 RBIs in 45 games for Nashville after missing time with an injury in the early going. Unfortunately for him, the Brewers had added an All-Star-level catcher in the off-season in William Contreras and there was no room for him on the big league team, in spite of his strong hitting. On August 1st, he was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in return for minor league pitcher Evan McKendry, but the Rays were also looking at him solely as insurance, and he spent the rest of the season in AAA with the Durham Bulls, hitting .281 in 14 games before hitting the injured list again in late August and being out for a month. He started the 2024 season in Durham where he hit .238 with 8 homers over 28 games. He was called up to Tampa on May 3rd and played 58 games for the Rays, getting 139 at-bats - the most major league action he had yet seen in one year - but his good minor league hitting failed to translate at the big league level, as he hit just .122 with an OPS+ of 26. He was designated for assignment on September 4th and then sent outright to Durham a few days later, finishing the year there.

On November 8, 2024, he signed a minor league contract with the Cincinnati Reds, but he never got to play a game at any level in the Reds system, as on December 20th he was on the move again, this time being included in a major league trade alongside P Fernando Cruz, going to the New York Yankees in return for C Jose Trevino.

Related Sites[edit]

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