Index of Sports Press Releases

June 23, 2009

Despite obstacles, Jukich is knocking on big leagues' door

By: Matt Bunke, The Daily Republic

Cincinnati Reds’ minor leaguer Ben Jukich pitches for Dakota Wesleyan during his record-setting 2006 season.

To say Ben Jukich’s journey to the doorstep of the big leagues has been a long one wouldn’t be entirely accurate.

After all, it took the 26-year-old lefthander only two seasons to go from a 13th-round selection in the 2006 amateur draft all the way to Triple-A Louisville, the top minor league affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.

But Jukich’s long, improbable climb to this point began well before the Duluth, Minn., native ever signed his first professional contract, and long before he ever set foot on the Dakota Wesleyan campus in 2005.

There was a time when Jukich himself doubted he would get this far. There was even a time when Jukich says he completely ceased thinking about the possibility of playing professionally.

He certainly wasn’t thinking about the big leagues in 2001, when he failed out of Central Lakes Community College in Brainerd, Minn., after just one semester. He spent the next year and a half working at gas stations and other various night jobs, all while playing amateur baseball with friends, just trying to stay in the game.

“That was only because I liked the game, not because I was looking for an opportunity to play in the pros,” Jukich said.

Jukich certainly wasn’t thinking about the big leagues in 2004, when he enlisted in the Army, and was two weeks away from being shipped to Fort Benning in Georgia. But that’s when things changed for Jukich, who was saved a possible deployment to Iraq when he was offered a chance to continue his baseball career at McCook Community College in Nebraska.

Jukich spent one season at McCook before he used up his community college eligibility. That’s when he got what he considers a life-changing scholarship offer from Adam Neisius, then the head baseball coach at Dakota Wesleyan University.

“He offered me the opportunity of a lifetime to go back and play competitive baseball again,” Jukich said. “It was the opportunity I was looking for to get back in the game and put myself on the map.”

Jukich spent only one season at DWU, but wowed scouts with 10 wins and an NAIA-leading 144 strikeouts in 2006, still a DWU record. But even during that standout season — which led to Jukich being the only player ever drafted out of the Great Plains Athletic Conference — he still wasn’t thinking about the big leagues — at least not at first.

“I wasn’t even thinking about getting drafted, and I didn’t think of it as an opportunity to play pro baseball at that point either,” Jukich said. “When scouts started showing up at our games, that’s when reality set in.”

Neisius, who landed Jukich at DWU only after losing another big-time pitching prospect the week before, said he realized early on what kind of potential Jukich had.

“We played an intrasquad scrimmage in the fall of ’05, and I was calling balls and strikes from behind the mound,” Neisius said. “When I was watching him pitch and I saw what his pitches did, I knew we had something special.

“Looking back now, thank God the right-hander from Colorado backed out, because otherwise we never would have gotten Ben Jukich.”

Quick riser
Once Oakland made Jukich its 13th-round selection in the 2006 amateur draft, it didn’t take Jukich long to establish himself as a legitimate Major League prospect. Jukich was immediately shipped to Class A Short-Season Vancouver before finishing the season at Class A Kane County, where he went 3-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 41.2 innings.

He started the 2007 season with Oakland’s Class A Advanced club, but struggled in 12 starts before being traded to Cincinnati as the “player to be named later” in a trade that sent Chris Denorfia to the A’s.

After the trade, he went 8-2 with a 3.55 ERA for the Reds’ Class A affiliate, and then started the 2008 season at Double-A Chattanooga, where he started 23 games for the Lookouts and went 10-4 with a 3.82 ERA. He was the starting pitcher in the Southern League All-Star game, when he worked one perfect inning and picked up the win.

Not long after that, he was promoted to Triple-A Louisville, where he finished the season with a 1-1 record and 4.11 ERA in 22.2 innings. Within two years of being drafted, Jukich was only a step away from the big leagues.

“Ben was a little older when he was drafted out of Dakota Wesleyan,” Neisius said. “He’s needed to progress this quickly in order for them to see if he’ll be a Major League guy in the near future.”

Neisius said he’s confident Jukich will get there eventually, and Jukich also expressed optimism that one day — and hopefully soon — he will find himself on a Major League roster.

“It’s a marathon, and careers last a long time,” Jukich said. “I find it hard to believe that sometime along the way, a team won’t have a spot for a lefthander somewhere on their roster.”

One more step
Jukich has made it as far as he can in the minor leagues, leaving only one place left to go: Cincinnati.

The trick now will be getting there.

Jukich was thought to possibly be one injury away from the big leagues, but when Reds’ starting pitcher Edinson Volquez went down with an elbow injury in late May, it was Matt Maloney who was summoned from Louisville on June 6 for his first major league call-up. Maloney is 0-2 with a 6.11 ERA with the Reds.

“I try not read into that stuff, because you never really know what’s going on,” Jukich said. “That’s one thing I’ve learned from playing pro ball is just to take things one day at a time, and take advantage of my innings whenever I get them.”

The problem for Jukich so far this season is that he never really seems to know when that next opportunity might be. He started the year in the starting rotation and made two starts, but has been used mostly out of the bullpen since, making only two more starts.

In his first three starts, Jukich was dominant, going 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings. But after accumulating an ERA of 9.00 in 20 innings of relief, Jukich struggled a bit when he returned to the rotation Monday to start in Maloney’s place, allowing five earned runs in six innings. Jukich will start again today.

Considering Jukich’s success as a starter, the Reds’ decision to have him moved to the bullpen presumably stems from a desire to make him more versatile, and possibly get him to the big leagues faster. Relief pitchers — especially lefthanders — are at a premium in Major League Baseball.

“I feel like a natural starter, but they feel like I could be more valuable to the organization if I can learn how to come out of the bullpen,” said Jukich, who admits that so far, that has been a struggle.

“I haven’t pitched really well out of the bullpen, and I think that comes from not ever coming out of the bullpen in my career with the exception of a couple innings. It’s a different mindset, and it’s a mental thing more than anything.”

What’s next?
Jukich said he expects to remain in Louisville’s starting rotation as long as Cincinnati’s Volquez remains on the disabled list. Volquez, who has not resumed throwing off a mound yet, is thought to be at least a couple weeks away from returning.

When he does return, somebody will have to be sent back to Triple-A, and Jukich suspects he will be right back in the bullpen.

“I’ll do whatever they want me to do,” he said, “but I know I can get outs, and that’s the bottom line.”

Jukich said it’s too early to tell what his future in the Reds’ organization holds. The Reds already have two promising young hurlers in their starting rotation in Volquez and Jonny Cueto, but veterans Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo are both in contract years. Given the premium on starting pitching in the big leagues, both could demand decent contracts in free agency, possibly opening the door a bit for Jukich.

“Depending on how well they do, it could be too expensive for the Reds to be able to keep both,” Jukich said. “Hopefully that’s not the case, because those are the kinds of veterans you need in the clubhouse, especially with a lot of young guys in the rotation.”

Jukich’s own future in the Reds’ organization is also far from certain. Because this is his third year in the Reds’ system, Jukich will be eligible for selection in the Rule 5 draft in December, unless the Reds choose to protect him by placing him on their 40-man roster. Jukich is not currently on the 40-man roster, which, unless things change, would allow him to be selected by another team.

Wherever he ends up next season, whether it’s Cincinnati, Louisville or even another organization, Jukich says he’s just happy to have come as far as he has.
“I believe that everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I believe God put us on this earth for one thing, and that’s to play baseball.

“I don’t know how I got to this point right now, because there are too many things that have happened. Getting another chance to play at McCook, getting a scholarship at Dakota Wesleyan — those are things that tell me I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’m just going to run with it and do what I can, until they take it away from me or until I get to the big leagues.”