By Mitchell A. Skurzewski

MMC Contributor

MARSHFIELD – Trevor Schwecke could hardly believe it when a talent scout called him early on Day 3 of the MLB Draft.

“He told me it was looking good and if I lasted to where the Blue Jays were picking they were probably going to take me,” Schwecke said in a phone interview. “It was a crazy day.”

The next half hour seemed to drag on, but when the moment came, it was worth the wait. With the 387^th overall pick in the 13^th round, the Toronto Blue Jays made it official, drafting Schwecke.

Schwecke is the third Marshfield High School graduate in the last five years to be taken in the MLB Draft, following Elliot Ashbeck in 2015 and Daulton Varsho in 2017.

“I had my mom and stepdad here with a few friends, it was just an amazing moment that I am so grateful for,” Schwecke said.

“I saw my name pop-up on (the ticker), it was an emotional moment,” Schwecke said.”It’s been a long journey. I have put a lot of work in and there are a lot of people that helped me along the way. You’re thinking about all that.”

Schwecke said he had met scouts from the Phillies, Cubs, Pirates, Cubs, and Blue Jays leading up to the draft and thought after a strong individual workout the Phillies might be the team he went to during the draft.

For Schwecke, he savored the moment seeing his name on the MLB Network ticker a little more than most. Schwecke didn’t have any Division I or Division II interest from colleges when he wrapped up his career at Marshfield High School.

So, Schwecke walked on at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, following fellow Marshfield graduate Daulton Varsho. Daulton’s father, Gary Varsho, an MLB scout, told coaches that Schwecke could play at the Division I level.

 “I am so grateful for Gary and Daulton,” Trevor said. “Daulton was like my mentor, I really look up to him. Gary really vouched for me and said I could play at (the) Division I level. Daulton had that great work ethic and I really just kind of followed him. It was great to be a teammate of a guy that works that hard and I really just soaked everything up that I could and tried to emulate him.”

Schwecke constantly put in the extra time and the results followed. Schwecke credits the coaches, including UWM head coach Scott Doffek, assistant head coach Cory Bigler, and coach Long in years prior for countless hours working on his swing and game to develop into the player he is now.

“It was a progression of a lot of hard work and the coaches molding me into the player I am now,” he said.” It was more a marathon than a sprint. I put a lot of work in.”

But it wasn’t at UWM where buzz picked up surrounding his draft stock, but rather it was in the Northwoods League.  The Northwoods League is a summer league wood bat league for collegiate players.

Last year, Schwecke hit .298 with 7 homers, 53 runs scored, 34 RBIs, and stole 18 bases. He was an NWL-All-Star. Some collegiate players struggle with the move to a wood bat, but Schwecke flashed some surprising power with the lumber.

Schwecke carried that momentum into 2019 with UWM, where he hit a robust .335 with a .416 on-base percentage and drove in 54 runs in 53 games and the 6-1, 185-pound infielder was a unanimous first-team All-Horizon League selection.

Schwecke was signed by the Blue Jays and assigned to the Vancouver Canadians, the single A affiliate for Toronto.

Schwecke is getting his feet wet at the major league level. The plan is to play four to five days a week and all over the diamond, he said.

After a mediocre start, Schwecke has started to rake at Vancouver, including a six-hit game recently. Schwecke is currently hitting .281 with five doubles, six RBIs and eight runs scored with Vancouver through July 9.

 All he wanted was a chance. He took the most of it in college and now hopes to do the same in the pros.

“I am a competitor,” he said. “To hear my name called is pretty indescribable. I am going to take this step by step. I am just going to go out and compete and play hard.”