Friday on the Farm: Big-league camp yet another hit for Blaine Crim, who was never sure he'd get this far

The first baseman has done nothing but produce since his professional debut in 2019.

Depth is thin at first base in the Rangers organization, so there’s opportunity for Blain Crim(Texas Rangers Newsletter/Jeff Wilson).

The way Blaine Crim saw things in 2019, he would give professional baseball a try but not before putting a safety net in place first.

His father had just sold a trucking logistics business to a larger company, and Crim had lined up a job in sales once he was finished at Mississippi College.

The Texas Rangers found him in Clinton, Miss., and used their 19th-round draft pick on him. His first assignment was to the short-season A team in Spokane, Wash., where his sales job was put on hold.

He blossomed into the Northwest League MVP after batting .335 and posted a .927 OPS and a league-best 45 RBIs. He climbed to Double A last season and was the batting champion of the Puerto Rican Winter League this offseason.

Now, he’s in big-league spring training.

That damn baseball keeps getting in the way of his and wife Katie’s post-college plans.

“We were talking a couple nights ago, and she was like, ‘I just didn't know that this was going to be more than, like, a year thing,” Crim said. “I went into it thinking like, ‘Hey, I'm just going to do this for the experience.’ You know, we were already talking about our future and everything.”