Angels’ David MacKinnon reflects on improbable journey, knocks alma mater for making it harder to replicate

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Life as a 32nd-round draft pick often begets a series of inflection points for a pro ballplayer. Getting picked at that spot in the draft typically means coming off the scrap heap. It comes with almost no signing bonus. Today, it’s a round that no longer exists.

For infielder David MacKinnon, the Angels’ 2017 32nd-round pick out of Hartford, a critical inflection point came in 2019. He was hitting .140 in High A. Then he tore his ACL. Then COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 season.

There’s almost no money to be made at that level of minor-league baseball. And MacKinnon wanted to start a family with his wife, Jordan MacKinnon, who was the main advocate in him continuing his baseball career, despite the hurdles. They’d spend offseasons living with family to save money.

Was there really a path to the big leagues for a player who wasn’t on the radar? And if there was a path, was it even worth pursuing it if the chances were minuscule and the time commitment massive?

“Do I have the time to rehab?” MacKinnon said of his thought process. “And then have to go through Double A and Triple A? It was like, do I have the time to do that and make no money?

“I had the desire, I wanted to really bad. But did I have the time to start a family and all that stuff financially? We made huge sacrifices.”

MacKinnon is now two weeks into his MLB dream. He was called up by the Angels on June 18 after posting a 1.056 OPS in Triple A. His at-bats have been valuable, and he’s already been slotted into the middle of the order. But now he’s witnessing yet another inflection point in his orbit. His alma mater, the University of Hartford, recently cut its Division I programs.

The school that developed the athlete at the center of this minor baseball miracle is narrowing its chances of ever doing so again. And as he adjusts to big-league life and experiences moments of success, the former two-sport star — who is No. 2 on the shutouts leaderboard among soccer goalies and first on the hits leaderboard in baseball — is aware that there’s an opportunity to be outspoken about an issue that frustrates him.

“There are some alums that are upset and things like that,” said Hartford head baseball coach Steve Malinowski. “I’d just rather keep this article about Dave and all the accomplishments that he’s getting.”

The issue, though, is that it’s hard to separate his history and feelings about Hartford from what he’s accomplishing now.

“I’ll light it up. Steve can’t light it up,” MacKinnon said. “But I think it’s complete BS that (Hartford president Gregory Woodward) came in there and straight up changed it. He hasn’t really done much for the school. He thinks cutting Division I sports is going to save money.

“I’m disappointed. I know all the alumni are disappointed. I’ll go visit this year, but after this year when that all goes away … there’s no reason for me back there.”

The 27-year-old rookie is an uncanny doppelgänger for Noah Syndergaard. But their paths are so different and MacKinnon’s story deviates from the prototypical journey so many take. A big chunk of that story is what he accomplished at Hartford. The four years he spent there were critical to him. It’s now a place he wants nothing to do with.

MacKinnon said he hasn’t heard from anyone at the school since his call-up, outside of ex-coaches, and speculated that it looks bad for them when a student of theirs debuts in the big leagues as they cut its Division I program.

The university said in a statement to The Athletic it is “happy to see David make his major league debut and to have been a part of his journey.” The school also said the Division III approach “better aligns with the University’s mission.” It said the university recognizes there is both support and disappointment for the decision that was first announced in March 2021.

MacKinnon, though, feels pride in having been such a big part of two programs. Those programs will now evaporate from relevancy. It’s not easy to go from a small northeast program to the major leagues. That’s part of what makes everything he’s doing so remarkable.

His counterpart at first base, Jared Walsh, also came up as a late draft pick (39th round) and made a splash in the big leagues. They don’t share the same story, but there’s an appreciation for what it takes to make the majors when no one thinks you will.

“I think even if you asked (MacKinnon), he’d say the same thing,” Walsh said. “(Reaching the big leagues as a late draft pick) requires a lot of luck and a lot of good fortune.

“Generally the guys who are top-five rounders get way more opportunities. They go to fall league, go to instructional league. Stuff that we didn’t always do. You’ve got to be very talented, you’ve got to be good, you’ve got to be lucky.”

MacKinnon’s parents didn’t let him play football until he was in high school. And once he got to that age, his dad, Don MacKinnon, urged him to try out for soccer goalie. The team needed a good one. He became great, among the best in school history at Hartford, all the while leading a baseball program that went 16-40 the year before he got there to 37-18 by his senior season.

“He always had the mentality that he liked to be part of a team where he could help build that team and get them to a better place,” said his mother, Rita MacKinnon. “He’s always had the mentality of, ‘Hey, it’s OK if you start here, you can really build up.’”

That’s what he’s had to do his whole career.

MacKinnon hoped to be drafted as a junior. In fact, he’d gotten word to expect to hear his name called between rounds eight and 15. But the only calls that came were from teams hoping to draft him and then sign him at a significant bargain.

He said no thanks, and subsequently went unselected. He stayed for his senior year at Hartford.

There was a comfort in returning to Hartford to develop one more season. He knew the school was making a financial investment in him through a scholarship, and he wanted an MLB signing bonus offer to be above the value of that scholarship.

But he went back and continued to build on two programs that thrived more when he was there than when he wasn’t. To see the Division I program demolished is frustrating, he said.

“There’s just no appreciation from Woodward for anything that we tried to build,” MacKinnon said. “And anything that we did. He didn’t care. He just ripped it down pretty much. I don’t have respect for him.”

You can’t credit Hartford for MacKinnon’s persevering rehab in 2019 and 2020. You can’t credit the school for his sudden ability to mash when he returned in 2021, having studied the swings of Mike Trout and Vladimir Guerrero Jr and adjusting his batting stance. You can’t credit Hartford for MacKinnon recording a game-winning hit in the seventh inning on Sunday.

That’s all MacKinnon. But what you can credit the school for is giving MacKinnon a chance. A chance others will have a harder time getting there. A reality he laments.

MacKinnon is living in this moment — pinching himself that he’s teammates with Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Recognizing that he has a voice and a pulpit from which to speak his mind.

MacKinnon hasn’t crushed the ball, hitting only two pitches for an exit velocity of more than 100 mph. But he’s been solid at elongating counts and putting the ball in play. He’s also stepped up and manned third base for the Angels, a position he played minimally at Hartford, but also one he hadn’t played since Hartford.

The position might be the same. Hitting in the middle of the order might be the same. But this isn’t Hartford anymore. And for MacKinnon, that is just fine. This is the major leagues, and he’s going to keep the mindset of a player just scraping by.

“Like yeah, I’m up here,” MacKinnon said. “But I want to stay up here for a long time. It’s not just like I just want to stay up here for a couple weeks or just the season. I want to be up here for the rest of my career.”