Before getting released by the Miami Marlins at the end of spring training,
Dylan Lee was living in a camper that he hauled behind his truck to save money. Now, he’s a World Series champion, newly married and about to move into a Tennessee home that has a creek where he can work on his fly-fishing.
These truly are exceptional times for the Lees of Dinuba, Calif., a town of 24,000 in the northwest corner of Tulare County, which usually tops agricultural revenue rankings among United States counties and annually hosts the World Ag Expo.
To say that Lee, 27, paid his dues to get to the major leagues would be akin to saying farming is big in Tulare County. It took Lee so long to get to the big leagues that plenty of people in his hometown were wondering if it would ever happen.
“Here back in Dinuba we’ve been huge fans of his journey,” said Dinuba High baseball coach Brent Morrelli, who is “Coach Mo” to Lee. “And we’re like, ‘Man, come on, he’s got to get a shot.’ He’s had some really good years in Triple A and Double A.”
Consider the current year Lee has had: he was released by the Marlins on March 29, signed with the Braves as a free agent April 15, spent the season in Triple A before making his major league debut Oct. 1, pitched in the NLCS at Dodger Stadium three weeks later, started Game 4 of the World Series, closed on a house near Chattanooga on Nov. 9, and got married Nov. 20 in a barn in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Oh, and he rode on a float in the Dinuba Christmas parade Dec. 4 — accompanied by his wife, Courtney, his mother, Linda, and Miss Dinuba, no less — since he’s the first player from the town to make it to the majors.
“They wanted me on a float at the Christmas parade, and I was just like, ‘I don’t really care to be on a float,’” said Lee. “But then I was getting told by some people to just get up there, and I ended up being on it with some people from Dinuba youth baseball academy — that’s what I’m more excited about it, is trying to build back up the youth baseball program in Dinuba. Because it used to be really competitive, and now we’ve got kids going to some other cities (to play baseball). So hopefully I can help build that up.”
During the World Series, the Dinuba Chevron Quic Shop had a picture of Lee in his Braves uniform plastered on the front window, along with Braves and Dinuba High logos. That’s an honor usually reserved for the local high school football homecoming or Christmas decorations so late in the year.
On the Dinuba High baseball team’s Facebook page, they were selling Dylan Lee throwback jerseys last month, with proceeds to support youth baseball and Lee’s foundation.
“Man, our town was just going nuts” during the Braves’ World Series run, Morrelli said. “Just awesome. … And in our town, football in the last 10, 15 years has really become big; it’s been a football town. So to see that excitement for baseball — we’ve had some good runs, some really good seasons, but it just hasn’t quite gained the popularity as football.
“But during that (Braves run), it was the talk of the town. It was really cool. In the middle of football season.”
Roots in Tulare County
Country music icon Merle Haggard, raised outside Bakersfield in Kern County, one over from Tulare, once sang of the “Tulare dust in a farm boy’s nose.” Bobby Cox, longtime former Braves manager and baseball Hall of Famer, was raised about 15 miles from Dinuba in Selma, in Fresno County.
Milk, oranges, grapes, tangerines and cattle — those are the biggest commodities in Tulare County. Football — that’s the biggest sport in Dinuba.
Alas, it’s a tough road to the major leagues for most draft picks not selected in the higher rounds, guys who don’t have a lot invested in them by teams.
Lee went undrafted out of high school and again after two years of ace-caliber juco pitching at College of the Sequoias. So, he pitched two more years at Fresno State — first as a starter, then closer — before being selected by the Marlins in the 10th round in 2016.
The 6-foot-3 lefty had a solid 93-mph fastball coming out of college, but his curveball and changeup needed work. He made significant strides in his first two years of pro ball, and if he’d been a higher-regarded prospect, Lee might’ve gotten a look with the Marlins during a 2018 season, when he compiled a 1.74 ERA in 44 appearances across three levels from High A to Triple A.
He had 12 scoreless appearances that season in Double A, with 19 strikeouts and one walk in 15 innings, and a combined 63 strikeouts with 22 walks and one homer allowed in 62 innings for three affiliates. In 2019, the strikeouts-to-walks ratio slipped (56:21) and Lee allowed seven homers in 58 2/3 combined innings in the high minors, posting a 1.91 ERA in 32 appearances at Double A and a 4.71 ERA in 13 appearances in Triple A.
When the 2020 season was canceled, the Marlins opted not to include Lee among the group they sent to their alternate training site in Jacksonville, which included top young prospects and older players they could call in case of injury at the major-league level.
He was 25 and had not sniffed the big leagues, and now there was no minor league season, no place for Lee to pitch. Some in his position might have been tempted to call it a career, but Lee kept plugging. He threw into a net he rigged up at a lake house his then-fiancee’s parents had in Crescent City, Fla., and to Dinuba High players back in California.
He focused on improving his slider and changeup, despite not having any games or live batting practice where he could work on the pitches.
“When I was throwing into a net, I was throwing into an arrow target — it had different spots so I could hit it, and it was a little bit easier to locate my stuff,” he said. “I had my fiancee there too, and she even recorded a couple of (sessions from behind the target). I was kind of like, ‘Hey, how does that look?’”
Lee laughed and said, “She was kind of scared because she just didn’t trust that I’d hit my spots, I guess.”
It wasn’t an exciting way to train, but Lee did it month after month in 2020.
“Having to go pick up the balls doesn’t always feel good either,” he said. “You try to hit your spots so you don’t throw it past the net. My dad always calls it, you want to play catch, not fetch. But I had to do a lot of fetching.”
A year later, near the end of another Marlins spring training, Lee thought he might finally go to the alternate site with others for a brief stretch between the end of spring training and the start of the Triple-A season. Instead, he was told he was being released.
“It was right before they sent guys to the alternate site,” he said. “They told me, actually, the day before, that I was going to the alternate site. And then the next day they released me. I was living in my fifth-wheel trailer the whole time at spring training, so I already had it packed up and I was about to head out to Jacksonville. And then I got the news and I said to my fiancee, ‘Hey, we can unpack for a little bit; we might be here for a while.’
“I try to tell people it’s just part of the job, part of the business. I just had to learn about it a little bit earlier on than some people do in their career.”
Since the Marlins’ spring training site is in Jupiter, Lee and Courtney didn’t have to haul the camper far to her parents’ lake house in Crescent City, not far from Chipper Jones’ hometown of Pierson in Central Florida.
Though disappointed, Lee said he wasn’t shocked, not after being in the Marlins organization for several years without a call-up or even an invitation to the alternate site.
“I kind of saw it coming,” he said. “I saw what they were doing, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise. You know how you’re kind of liked but not loved? That’s how I felt. It’s just, I wasn’t part of their plan. Easy as that.
“So I was like, ‘OK, well, hopefully someone has a plan out there for me.’”
Dylan Lee’s time with the Marlins ended earlier this year. (Jim Rassol / USA Today)
New team, new plan
Two weeks after the Marlins released him, the Braves signed Lee to a minor league contract and assigned him to their Triple-A affiliate.
After not pitching in any regular-season games since 2019, Lee looked like a man with something to prove at Gwinnett. In 35 appearances for the Stripers, he had a 2.12 ERA and a career-best ratio of 54 strikeouts to six walks and four homers allowed in 46 2/3 innings.
Lee was added to the 40-man roster and called to the majors for the first time on Sept. 22 at Arizona. Some from Dinuba scrambled and made the trip to Phoenix, but Lee didn’t pitch in any games before being optioned back to Gwinnett a few days later.
“I got a text Saturday morning saying he was being reassigned back to Triple A, and I was just heartbroken, because the next day I was planning on going down to San Diego. I hadn’t seen him yet in a major league uniform,” Morrelli said.
But Morrelli wouldn’t be heartbroken for too long.
After the Braves clinched their fourth consecutive NL East title with a Sept. 30 win against Philadelphia, on the final weekend of the season they recalled Lee and also brought up hard-throwing prospect Spencer Strider, to see if either might be ready to help the bullpen during the postseason.
Each made two relief appearances in the three-game series against the Mets. Though Strider had better results, the Braves opted to include only Lee on the division series roster against Milwaukee. They liked the idea of having another left-handed breaking ball against the Brewers.
After his first weekend on a major league roster, Lee was going to the postseason. And he’d had an inkling it might happen.
“I was sitting in the trailer, and I told my fiancee that we probably need to go get a sports coat, because I didn’t have one,” said Lee, who was again living in the trailer with Courtney after the lease ran out on their apartment in Gwinnett. “And then we went to Nordstrom Rack down there near (Truist Park) and I got a call from (manager Brian) Snitker while we were there.
“He goes, ‘Hey, we just wanted to call you and let you know that you’ve been added.’ And I go, ‘Well, good thing I’m at Nordstrom Rack, because I needed to get a sports coat.’ And he started laughing.”
Lee didn’t pitch in the series against the Brewers and was left off the roster for the NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But when Huascar Ynoa was scratched from a Game 4 start against the Dodgers with shoulder inflammation, the Braves added Lee to the roster.
One day later, he made his postseason debut with two innings of relief, throwing 30 strikes in 38 pitches, striking out two batters, walking none and giving up three hits and one run on a homer by Chris Taylor, who also homered off starter Max Fried and reliever Chris Martin that night in a three-homer, six RBI outburst.
Other than the outcome — an 11-2 Dodgers win, their last of the series — it was a satisfying and memorable way to make his postseason debut, at venerable Dodger Stadium only a few hours from Dinuba.
“My dad is a huge Dodgers fan, but I think he was rooting for the Braves that day,” Lee said. “I had my high school coaches there, and a couple of my little league coaches. My parents weren’t able to do it because of work, but they got to visit me in San Diego when I first got called up. And then when I was in Arizona they were there. So that was more important to me, because that was special. I knew that they were watching me, they were there (at Dodger Stadium) in spirit.”
Morrelli and an assistant coach went to the game, but didn’t account for Los Angeles traffic and arrived just after Freddie Freeman’s first-inning home run.
“We’ve kind of had some troubles with getting (substitute teachers) this year, and I didn’t take the morning off; I just took the afternoon off,” Morrelli said. “So I didn’t get to talk to Dylan before the game. I was hoping I’d get down and get a picture with him, give him a hug and all that good stuff. But one of our assistant coaches is pretty MLB-savvy when it comes to going to games. I was like, which side should I get my tickets on, because I want to be right there on the bullpen. And sure enough, I was above it, which was perfect.
“(Lee) came walking out, and me and my dad — he knows my dad real well, my dad was a high school baseball coach as well — we’re yelling at him and he kind of looked up and … I could tell he was real excited, but at the same time he’s like, I better not show too much emotion. It was a big-league ‘hi,’ a wave.”
In just his third MLB appearance, Lee performed well on the big stage, in front of more than 51,000 fans in the noisy cauldron that is Dodger Stadium for a playoff game.
“It let me know that I could pitch up there, that I belonged,” he said. “And if they trusted me to pitch in that game, I need to trust myself to be able to pitch against those guys. They saw some things and the coaching staff trusted me and the analytics guys saw that I could be a help, so all you’ve got to do is trust in yourself.”
The Braves clinched the NL pennant two nights later, and Lee’s next appearance came in Game 2 of the World Series at Houston in another packed, energized, loud environment. This time he entered in a tight spot, with two runners on and none out in the sixth inning.
Lee did his job, getting a fielder’s choice from Kyle Tucker before inducing a potential inning-ending double-play grounder by Yuli Gurriel, though second baseman Ozzie Albies dropped it. Lee struck out the next batter before Jesse Chavez recorded the last out of the inning.
Lee’s first two postseason appearances were so encouraging, the Braves, with their rotation thinned by injuries, turned to him as the opener for Game 4. It was his first start since Single A in 2017. He set a record for fewest MLB appearances (four) before starting a World Series game.
“Yeah, and probably the shortest amount of outs for somebody’s (World Series) start, too,” cracked Lee, who was replaced after facing just four batters, recording one out, and allowing an infield single and two walks.
Kyle Wright came in and limited the damage to one run in the inning, and the Braves’ 3-2 win gave them a 3-1 series lead. In the postgame news conference, Lee deadpanned that he knew relieving was his role.
Asked about that six weeks later, he said, “That’s something I like about being a reliever, is that you could get called on almost every day and help the team out. When you’re starting, maybe some days your arm feels better than others, and then on your start day you’re like, well, I hope my arm’s feeling good today … I was telling Max, I don’t know how you guys do it, starting that many games and pitching 200 innings.”
When the Braves clinched the second World Series of the team’s Atlanta era, Lee was in the middle of the hearty celebration in Houston and rode in the victory parade a few days later in Atlanta.
In Dinuba, Devin Lee still can hardly believe how things turned around for his younger brother, whose hard work finally paid off.
“Sometimes it still feels like a dream and I keep pinching myself,” Devin said. “I couldn’t be prouder of him. It’s kind of easy to brag about the things that he’s accomplished.”
Devin helped forge Dylan’s drive while competing with him in one sport after another “from the time we could walk,” Devin said. Season after season, year after year. Swimming, basketball, wrestling in their teens, golf later when Dylan worked at a golf course, football (Dylan was a tight end and defensive end at Dinuba High).
And of course, baseball.
“Basically if there was a sport where we could call each other a winner or loser, we’d play,” Devin said. “It wouldn’t even stop at practice. We’d come home and play nonstop until lights weren’t available, or we made our own lights just hanging construction lights and played baseball outside still, at our house. Either in the front yard or back yard, we were always playing Wiffle Ball or some sport outside.”
Lee’s parents, Linda and John, work in Dinuba schools, and they’ve instilled work ethic and zero sense of entitlement in Dylan.
“My dad’s a janitor and mom’s a special needs teacher’s aide,” he said. “And after she works (that job), she works with elderly people. My parents are just hard-working people. And my grandparents also taught me about hard work. My dad’s father was in the Navy. My grandpa (on Linda’s side) was a dairyman, an immigrant from the Azores in Portugal, and my grandma was an immigrant from Brazil. So we’re just …” Lee paused, then finished by saying simply, “Yeah.”
So this was a quintessentially American story even before Lee lived out his dream, and he’s brought along his entire family and much of a town, at least figuratively.
In addition to a World Series ring, Lee made more money in a couple of weeks than he’d made in several years in the minors — Braves players divided up their playoff pool earnings into 66 full shares worth nearly $400,000 apiece, in addition to 14.25 partial shares and 38 cash awards.
“I’m able to take my parents out to dinner and not have them pay for it, and help them out with some groceries,” he said. “It feels nice. To not just be going paycheck to paycheck, having a little bit of cushion. I’m not comfortable, but it’s nice to have a little bit of a cushion so you’re not stressing so much about the monetary stuff.”
Lee took a redeye flight back to California a few hours after the World Series victory parade in Atlanta, so he could be at a previously scheduled youth baseball clinic he operates through his foundation. He’d done it in previous years as a minor leaguer. This year, he did it as a World Series champion. The camp was free for kids aged 6-14.
Morrelli said the acclaim couldn’t have come to a more deserving guy and family. “He comes back every year and it’s, ‘Hey, Dylan, can you come talk to my class?’ And he’ll talk to the kids. He’s all about giving back.”
Knowing Lee like he does, Morrelli wasn’t surprised he made it back again for the camp, even with his frenetic schedule.
“He got into L.A. at 11:45, 12 o’clock, so he could make his camp that he put on, the first Dylan Lee Camp at our school. And it started at 10 o’clock the next morning. And he opened it up to all our kids. We had about 250 kids in the camp. It was really cool.”
After his Nov. 6 camp, Lee flew to Tennessee to close on the house outside Chattanooga. It’s a couple of hours from Atlanta — “I like being close but not too close,” he said. Then he went back to California to prepare for his Nov. 20 barn wedding in picturesque Woodlake, 25 miles from Dinuba.
Lee shouldn’t have to worry about finding a team late in spring training next year — he’s under contractual control with the Braves, and they liked what they saw in his first year with the organization.
“He been very impressive,” Snitker said during the World Series. “What we’ve seen — the ability to throw strikes, his changeup is real. … He’s shown us we can trust him and put some confidence in him.”
However, when you’ve taken the long, winding road to the majors, you don’t assume anything.
“As you know, baseball can change in seconds,” Lee said. “I could get done with this phone call right now and someone could tell me I’m going to be going somewhere else. I’m just happy that I got the chance to be able to prove myself a little bit. At least I know I played my heart out and left it on the field. Even on that start day in the World Series.”
With players currently locked out by owners and little if any progress made so far on a new MLB collective bargaining agreement, there’s a chance that spring training could start late, or that players won’t be able to report early to work out as they have in the past. Not that it matters much to Lee, who proved he could not just stay in shape but actually improve during a year spent throwing alone into a net.
“I don’t really know too much about it because this is my first year” in the majors, Lee said of the work stoppage. “And then also, one thing good about me having a little offseason is I can fish more. So if they want to keep this going as long as they want, I’ll be fishing and throwing, just being ready whenever they call.”
https://theathletic.com/3010722/2021/12 ... ed-article