From Phenom To The Farm: Former MLB Pitcher Tyson Ross On Playing For His Hometown Oakland A’s & Team USA


Image credit: Tyson Ross (Photo by Bill Mitchell)
Tyson Ross grew up in the Bay Area, fifteen minutes from the Oakland Coliseum. Upon
blossoming into a talented righthanded pitcher, one who played on USA Baseball’s 18 National Team with future big leaguers like Clayton Kershaw, Ross chose to stay close to home by playing at California.
His standout career at Cal featured another Team USA appearance, this time for the
Collegiate National Team in the summer of 2007, which naturally came with plenty of
attention from scouts. In the 2008 draft, Ross’ hometown Athletics made him their second-round
pick.
The A’s right away worked to utilize Ross’ 6-foot-5 frame, adjusting his mechanics by
lengthening his stride by a foot. He responded well to the change and professional
baseball, in general, reaching Double-A during his first full minor league season and
breaking camp with the big league club after spring training 2010. Ross was yet again
back home, but this time with a much brighter spotlight.
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“(There was) tons of pressure going down to the ballpark every day,” Ross said. “One of
the bat boys was JV teammates with me, the interns for the jumbotron are guys from my
high school, the security guards are guys I had gym class with. So everywhere I turned,
there were people that I knew watching every move I was making and also being 22-
years-old trying to survive against the best players in the world.”
As rapid as his rise to Oakland had been, staying put proved to be harder. Ross spent
the better part of three seasons shuffling back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues,
finding it difficult to get his footing at the top level and struggling with confidence and life
stability, despite being close to the area that had always been home.
“My last year, (I) ended up buying a house in Oakland,” Ross said. “Most of the year I spent
in Triple-A. I’d be in Triple-A for a home stand, drive back to Oakland, do some laundry,
sleep and then drive back up first thing in the morning to catch that bus to the airport to
go to the next Triple-A city.”
Following the 2012 season, the A’s traded Ross south, sending him to the Padres and
to a situation where ironically he was finally able to feel at home in a big league rotation.
“Just being in the right environment with the right opportunity to pitch through some of
those ups and downs,” Ross said. “I think my first year I gave up six runs in the first
inning to the Phillies and thought ‘Great, here I go, I’m going back down.’ And five days
later they handed me the ball and said figure it out, and I was able to rebuild my
confidence and figure out how to be better.”
Ross was a National League all-star in 2014, turning in 196 innings and a 3.26 ERA the
ensuing year for the Padres, but he was unfortunately beset by injury soon after. Thoracic
outlet syndrome cost Ross his nearly his entire 2016 season, and his effectiveness waned
during the 2017 season.
“It took me a year and a half to bounce back and ultimately take the mound in 2018 and
resemble something of my former self,” Ross said.
Ross’ stuff never fully came back to resemble his all-star peak, and he last pitched in
the big leagues in 2019. He’s spending his retirement working with his community
focused baseball program, Loyal To My Soil, trying to give the next generation the
same kind of home away from home feeling on the diamond that Ross found during his
time in the big leagues.
On the latest episode of ‘From Phenom to the Farm’ former big league All Star Tyson
Ross joins to walk through his eight-year big league journey.