Nick Margevicius’ family has a new favorite baseball team. In the recent Major League Baseball Amateur draft, the San Diego Padres selected Nick, a left-handed pitcher from Rider University and from North Royalton, in the seventh round. Margevicius was the 198th player selected in the 2017 Draft.
Nick’s baseball story can be traced all the way back to playing T-ball in the North Royalton Recreation League back in the early 2000s.
“Nick played two years of T-Ball, one year of coach-pitch and three years of ‘Rec Ball’ before moving to travel ball,” said his dad Mark. From there, Nick played four years with Stallions Baseball, a team based around Strongsville. He played High School baseball at St. Ignatius. Plus, toss in his time with the St. Albert the Great CYO Baseball team, which won a City Championship with Nick on the mound. It’s quite a baseball story.
Mark Margevicius believes there are two big reasons why his son is now playing professional baseball. “He’s intelligent. He’s not just book smart. He knows the game of baseball much like Tom Glavine and Clayton Kershaw do. Secondly, he has a real passion for the game. He reads and studies everything he can about the game. He follows every team and player he can on his twitter account.”
Another reason why Major League teams noticed Nick was his performance last summer in the Cape Cod League. It’s a league where many of the better college baseball players spend their summer playing against their peers.
A number of scouts after seeing him pitch in the Cape Cod Baseball League put Nick on their radar. In fact, ten Major League teams attended a baseball pro day at Rider in January 2017 to get a look at Nick. “That was huge exposure,” said Mark.
By the third weekend in February 2017, Rider’s college baseball season was underway and the scouts were watching every time Nick pitched. (According to Mark Margevicius, the Indians were one of the 10 teams that showed interest in Nick).

Mark Margevicius said the Padres showed early interest in Nick, but by March, San Diego seemingly was uninterested.  Obviously, things changed.

The rules that govern the professional baseball draft are a bit different than those in the pro football or the pro basketball drafts. Players can be drafted right out of high school and at two different times in the collegiate career and after they graduate. But, players can choose to remain with their college teams.
Nick could have gone back to Rider University to play his senior season. But, Mark said his son had some things working in his favor. Nick had his diploma, having finished his degree requirements in three-and-a-half years and was ready to begin his professional career. Plus, Nick received some assurances that he would be drafted in the first ten rounds.
Mark Margevicius describes his son as a “late bloomer.” Nick grew from 6-ft. 1-in. as a freshman at Rider to 6-ft. 5-in., 220 pounds as he begins his career in the Arizona Rookie League with the Padres. Nick’s fast ball has been clocked on the radar gun at between 91-92 miles per hour and has topped out at 94.
Nick was hoping to be assigned jersey number 25 with his rookie league team. Mark said Nick’s favorite player growing up was Jim Thome. Instead, Nick was given number 49.
Before heading off to the desert Southwest, after signing his professional contract, Nick and Mark did something that dads and sons do all the time, have a game of catch, Mark did admit though that his son didn’t unleash that 94-mile-an-hour fast ball on him. “It was just like the movie Field of Dreams.”
Will Nick Margevicius eventually make it to the Major Leagues? Only time will tell. But, if he does, it will complete the journey from North Royalton T-Ball to “the Show.”

By JOE JASTRZEMSKI
Contributing Writer