Trevor Schwecke: From Backyard Ball to Minor League Success
(Reading, PA) - Trevor Schwecke grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin playing backyard baseball with his brother. His dad would hit, while Trevor and his brother would field the balls, attempting to make cool plays with their gloves. At the time, little did he know that one day he would be
(Reading, PA) - Trevor Schwecke grew up in Marshfield, Wisconsin playing backyard baseball with his brother. His dad would hit, while Trevor and his brother would field the balls, attempting to make cool plays with their gloves. At the time, little did he know that one day he would be making athletic plays in the field at the Minor League level.
“I think early on it was kind of a family passion, my sisters and mom and dad always came to mine and my brother’s games and it was something that meshed our family together.”
Schwecke began his professional career with the Toronto Blue Jays after being drafted in the 13th round of the 2019 draft. He spent four seasons with the organization beginning with Low-A Vancouver and worked his way up to Triple-A Buffalo in 2023. Schwecke comes to the Phillies organization after being selected in the minor league phase of the Rule Five Draft in December 2023.
“I feel like its only been a couple months with the Phillies but I’ve built a couple of lifelong friendships and relationships with some of the players and the coaches. They do a really good job of developing guys, they’re very hands-on from a coaching standpoint,” said Schwecke on his experience with the Phillies. “They treat us really well, I mean you can obviously see by the new facilities in Reading, just the way that they treat us during Spring Training, I’ve been very impressed so far.”
This season Schwecke has 11 hits, six runs scored, five stolen bases, and a .313 on-base percentage. In the R-Phils last homestand vs. Somerset, he slashed .357/.375/.500, with an .875 OPS. He added a run, two doubles, and three RBI in the series finale vs Somerset, which was hit first multi-hit/multi-RBI game of the season.
Defensively, Schwecke is very versatile and has made starts at shortstop, third base, and left field in 2024. In the Somerset series, Schwecke made a few nice plays in left field, robbing Somerset of extra-base hits. Growing up as a shortstop, he was always expected to make athletic, agile plays. Naturally, when he moved to the outfield it was an adjustment.
“Outfield is a little bit different in terms of first step and overall staying behind the ball,” commented Schwecke. “I started getting a lot more comfortable last year and I think my defensive numbers started to get better in the outfield once I got more comfortable.”
With a month of the regular season in the books, the Fightins are starting to look more confident on the field and build off of one other. The team finished April with a 10-12 record, which comes after going just 6-14 in the season’s first month in 2023.
Schwecke noted, “We have guys that are just very easy to get along with, everybody’s very high energy… we’re kind of all starting to realize our potential, and the energy is starting to be contagious, and starting to feed off of one another so, I think we’ve kind of hit our stride, now it's just about maintaining that.”