Chance Nolan, a Paloma Valley High School graduate, recently signed a minor league deal with the New York Yankees organization. Nolan, who has very little baseball experience, was a top quarterback for Oregon State. This was a very interesting move for the Yankees as Nolan didn’t play baseball that much, but signing him as a pitcher could be a smart move for them as he already has a good arm having been a former quarterback.
Chance announced his signing on X (formerly Twitter), stating that he has signed a minor league deal and is excited about this new experience. In the article Yankees Sign Former College Quarterback to Minor League Deal by John Sparaco, Sparaco states that Nolan’s only college baseball experience was at Morningside University. “In seven appearances with the Mustangs, Nolan allowed three hits and two earned runs over 3.1 innings, striking out three batters while walking nine.”
Nolan has the skill set to succeed and his pitch arsenal is enough to keep hitters on their toes, Chance features a fastball, sinker, sweeper, and changeup. If Nolan can get great command on his sweeper, it will be his go-to pitch to get either a swing and miss or a pitch to help him get out of a tough situation. The velocity isn’t a problem for Chance either as he can get it up to 97 mph, which is around the average for pitchers in the major league.
When he first arrived at camp, Chance was a little weary about his command and velocity. Chance told me “When I began to get into games I was finding struggle with my command but since then I definitely have worked on that and mastered it to where I don’t struggle with it as much as I used to”. Nolan also talked about his first experience with the Yankees and how they showed immediate interest in him “They told me how excited they were to further my abilities and become a dominant pitcher and they also showed me the most money out of other teams so it was kind of hard to reject the offer after a conversation like that”.
Paloma Valley Football coach Juan Merida was surprised once he heard about the signing. “Once the news broke I was slightly taken aback because I didn’t think that baseball would be the next step”. He continued to talk about where he thought Chance would end up. “I figured he was gonna try for the NFL but that clearly wasn’t the case”.
While he won’t be invited to this year’s spring training, Chance will be at pitching camps surrounded by players and coaches who have experienced the big leagues and will be able to mentor him and give him advice on how to deal with pressure and master his craft.
Chance will start in the lower levels of the minor leagues, but if he can control his pitching and build velocity on his other pitches, he will be called up and move quickly through the ranks. He needs to make only slight improvements, but once he makes these changes, Nolan will be one of the hardest pitchers to face as a batter.
