Jiwan James

Nathaniel Jiwan James

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 180 lb.
• High School Williston (FL) High School

• Born April 11, 1989 in Gainesville, FL USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Jiwan James played in the minor leagues from 2007 to 2016, reaching AA. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 22nd round of the 2007 amateur draft out of a high school in Florida and made his debut that same year, playing 9 games for the GCL Phillies. He was a pitcher at the time, and made 8 starts, but went 0-4, 7.71 in 32 2/3 innings. He then missed the 2008 season, presumably with an injury, and by the time he came back in 2009, he was a full-time outfielder and in fact would never again take the mound.

In 2009, his first year as a position player, he played 30 games for the Williamsport Crosscutters of the New York-Penn League, batting .265, then played in over 100 games in each of the next three seasons as the Phillies treated him as a serious prospect. In 2010, he was with the Lakewood Blue Claws of the South Atlantic League where he batted .270, scored 85 runs and stole 33 bases. In 2011, he moved up to the Clearwater Threshers of the Florida State League and hit .268, scored 76 runs and stole 31 bases. On May 24th, he played in a 23-inning marathon game against the Jupiter Hammerheads which Clearwater lost, 2-1. In that game, he reached base 5 times, hit a single, a double and a triple, but all in a losing cause. In 2012, he was promoted to the Reading Phillies of the AA Eastern League but fell to .249 with an OBP under .300, at 291, not a good thing for a leadoff-type hitter, and 55 runs scored and 8 stolen bases. His prospect status in question, he was then injured for the first two months of the 2013 season, and after a rehabilitation assignment in the Gulf Coast League was back in Class A with Clearwater, where he batted .260 in 36 games. He again dealt with injuries in 2014, only got healthy in June but after 9 games with Reading, during which he batted .333, he was released and did not play again that year.

He got his final shot in Organized Baseball in 2015 after signing as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers before the season. However, he was back in the Florida State League, this time with the Lakeland Flying Tigers and while he did play 114 games, he was by then much older than the average player in the circuit, so his line of .250/.299/.348 with 56 runs and 31 stolen bases was not particularly impressive. After being released by the Tigers at the end of spring training in 2016, he played one more season, split between two Independent Leagues teams, the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League and the Trois-Rivières Aigles of the Can-Am Association, but hit a combined .246 in 37 games and called it a career.