“I don’t think there was anything that didn’t happen for a reason. Each place in my path taught me a different lesson about what I have now.”
If you had told Andrew Walling back at the inaugural New Balance Baseball Future Stars Series International Week event in 2017 that his path after that was going to go the way it did, he wouldn’t have believed you.
“I would not have laid this out to you in any way when I was that age,” he said.
Now? He wouldn’t change a thing. It’s been a circuitous route for the now-25-year-old, who finds himself thriving in Double-A as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies organization, where he’s been since 2022 as an undrafted free agent.
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At the time, Walling was a 17-year-old two-way prospect who was mostly considered to be stronger with the bat than the arm, invited to Sugar Land that year solely as a hitter.
“I remember being in Sugar Land with my dad mostly,” Walling said during a recent interview with FSS Plus courtesy of the Reading Fightin’ Phils.
“It was a beautiful city, really cool field that we got to play at…it was a really cool event, and a fun opportunity. I really enjoyed being on that field, and having those experiences was a cool opportunity…you see good competition, I think that’s the biggest thing. Your eyes get continually open to there’s a lot of good players out there, and you can hang with them too. You should also take that away, that there’s a reason your among those guys, and you can brush elbows and continue to get better and better.”
The Longview, Wash. native remained a two-way player for another year, but by the time he got to Oregon State in 2019, it was strictly as a pitcher.
“I had an idea that it was going to be baseball; I really just loved the game, but it turns out that the hitting aspect was not what kept me out on the field further on,” he said. “But that’s OK. It taught me a lot going onto the pitching side, and was something that gave me those opportunities as well.”
The opportunity at Oregon State was brief; ten innings over ten games in two years. With that, a trip to go the JUCO route at Eastern Oklahoma State was the play for 2021, where he dabbled in returning to his two-way roots.
“Fun story with that, actually,” Walling said. “When I went to Eastern Oklahoma State, I was going to go there as a two-way as well; I was going to hit and pitch. But, about halfway through the fall, something just on the mound was starting to click. I had a good opportunity to revamp things during that COVID shutdown that happened into that season. The picture became pretty clear when it was coming out well from the left side and was repeatable. I was like, ‘Yeah, my future in this game probably isn’t at the plate, and that’s OK.’ So, I dove into pitching at that point.”
Leaving hitting behind for good wasn’t as difficult a decision as you may think.
“The transition for me wasn’t too tough,” he said. “I began to come to terms more with that the hitting side wasn’t going to work…of course there’s things you miss, but you’re still a part of it and you can still talk up the hitters. I think that’s something I added to my pitching arsenal, I like hearing about how guys go about their business at the plate. It reminds me of how I could have gotten better at the plate as well.”
After posting a 10-2 record and 2.45 ERA in 2021, Walling was back on the D1 map, finding himself at Mississippi State for his senior season. But, he made just three appearances, and had to rely largely on the MLB Draft League to get enough of a look for the Phillies to add him as an undrafted free agent.
“It keeps you resilient, that’s for sure,” Walling said. “I don’t think there was anything that didn’t happen for a reason. Each place in my path taught me a different lesson about what I have now. I think that’s all to say that I couldn’t be any more thankful for what I have today, because that all set me up for where I am. I think the reason I bounced around as much as I did is because I did feel like (pro ball) was realistic, and I needed to find new stones to unturn. At the end of it all, I don’t think I was ready yet. I got that opportunity in the summer after my year at Mississippi State, and I said I want to keep doing this. Everybody has that moment where they look in the mirror and ask themselves if they want to keep going after this and if you see it happening, and I did. So many things taught me lessons along the way that have been invaluable.”
Having to sink or swim quickly as a UDFA, Walling chose the latter and has done so ever since, serving as a steady mover in the Phillies system since signing. He reached Double-A for the first time last year and returned to Reading to start this season; the six-foot-two, 220-pound lefty has a career 16-3 record and 3.10 ERA over 95 pro appearances.
“They’ve done a fantastic job with the entire process, and every year, I’ve been able to add something new to my tool belt and it continues to sharpen me year after year,” he said. “That’s not to say that somewhere else I could have landed wouldn’t have done the same, but where I did end up has been amazing, and it’s exactly where I needed to be.”
Since 2003, he has covered multiple World Series and has worked high-profile events ranging from the MLB All-Star Game to the World Baseball Classic. In addition to his role working for the Future Stars Series that he's held since 2017, Ashmore currently serves as the beat writer of the Double-A New York Yankees affiliate, the Somerset Patriots, as well as national hockey writer and New York Jets game day beat reporter for The Trentonian.
A regular contributor to Baseball America, Ashmore has worked seven Super Bowls, 11 Stanley Cup Finals, the 4 Nations Face-Off, the NBA Playoffs, College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Frozen Four, Daytona 500, major UFC events and much more as he approaches 3,200 games covered in his career.
An avid card collector and sim racer, he lives with his wife, Sarah, their son William, and their beloved dog, Bailey, and cat, Smokey.
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