MADISON, Ala. — Following a breakout season with Triple-A Salt Lake, former Rocket City Trash Pandas outfielder Jordyn Adams has been promoted to the LA Angels for his Major League debut.
“It feels nice to be called up. I like to look at myself as a game-changing type player so I hope I can bring that up here and we can make the playoffs,” Adams said Tuesday in Atlanta before the Angels played the Braves. “I feel comfortable right now. The clubhouse here with these guys is a good group and coming back into it is like coming back where we left off from the spring.”
“He’s certainly been through a lot. It’s awesome to see him get rewarded for the work he put in and the adversity he’s been able to overcome,” said Trash Pandas Manager Andy Schatzley, Cabbage’s manager in 2022. “It’s an impressive season for anybody, and even more impressive for him given the way his season ended a year ago and what he’s had to do to get back to where he is today.”
Adams will become the 24th former Rocket City player to make his MLB debut (23rd for the Angels) and the seventh to do so in 2023 after Trey Cabbage, José Soriano, Ben Joyce, Sam Bachman, Zach Neto, Kolton Ingram, and Victor Mederos.
Adams spent the second half of the 2022 season with Rocket City and batted .249 with four home runs, 20 RBI, 33 runs scored, and 15 stolen bases in 62 games. He also appeared in two playoff games for the Trash Pandas, going 2-for-8 with a home run in his first professional postseason action. On July 7, 2022, Adams lifted a walk-off sacrifice fly to finish a 4-3 win over Chattanooga. He ended the year on a high note for the Trash Pandas, hitting .318 in 14 September games.
This season with Triple-A Salt Lake, Adams batted .264 with 13 home runs, 60 RBI, 62 runs scored, and a Pacific Coast League-leading 37 stolen bases in 89 games in his first season at the Triple-A level.
Adams, 23, was originally selected by the Angels in the first round of the 2018 draft out of Green Hope High School in Cary, North Carolina. He had committed to play both football and baseball at the University of North Carolina before signing with the Angels.
