Ryan Jaroncyk, the NY Mets 1995 first round draft pick, quit baseball and walked away

The New York Mets had the 18th pick in the first round of the 1995 draft. The previous season had not gone well for the team, finishing below .500 and 18.5 games out of first place. Darin Erstad was the first pick of the draft that day by the Angels, while future stars such as Roy Halladay, Kerry Wood, and Todd Helton had previously been selected before it was the Mets’ turn. With so many holes to fill at the major league level, the team’s philosophy was to draft the best available athlete. The Mets scouts and management finally decided that Ryan Jaroncyk would be the first-round pick, a highly touted high school shortstop out of Escondido, California.

Jaroncyk was the son of former USC football player Bill Jaroncyk. Growing up, sports were his life. There was a lot of pressure, but Ryan always met expectations on the field. He had been heavily scouted and was considered to be the total package, a blue chip prospect. “He had phenomenal athleticism. He could really run, really throw, and could drive the ball from the right side. I loved the way he played,” long time scout Jim Woodward said. In the spring of 1995, he told his employer, the New York Mets, that the 18-year-old kid from Orange Glen High School in Escondido, Calif., was a good bet to be a fixture at shortstop in Flushing for many years to come. Jaroncyk turned down a scholarship offer to Stanford University, signed with the New York Mets and was sent to play in the short-season Gulf Coast League where he hit .276 in 44 games.

Welcome to the NY Mets, first round draft pick Ryan Jaroncyk

As 1995 turned into 1996, Jaroncyk was beginning to believe that baseball was not necessarily the most important thing in his life. He had gotten married at age 18. Everything seemed complicated. At one point during that offseason, he told the organization that he wanted to retire but he was talked out of it. That year he played for Kingsport in full-season rookie ball.

Jaroncyk reported to spring training in 1997 and was assigned to Columbia, South Carolina’s Capital City Bombers, the next stop on his normal progression towards the major leagues. He was struggling and unhappy there. He claimed that the physical and emotional strain as well as the lifestyle of the game was not for him. Twenty-nine games into the season, Mets general manager Joe McIlvaine came to Columbia for a routine visit. Jaroncyk told McIlvaine that he wanted to meet with him in private. 

Follow the path you choose or follow the one chosen for you

Here’s McIlvaine recounting the story to Sports Illustrated a few years ago

We sat down, and he said, ‘I want to quit. I don’t enjoy baseball. I just want to throw away my glove. I’ve had enough.’ I asked him all the usual questions, whether he was sure he wanted to go through with it. And he said, ‘The minute I walk out of here I’m going to throw my glove in the dumpster.’ And that was that.”

And into the dumpster went the glove, bats, spikes, everything. At age 20, Ryan Jaroncyk walked away from the game claiming that it was time for him to live up to his own goals and expectations, not those of other people. He chose to follow his path of heart. Most people might disagree with his decision and think that he must be crazy. However, there’s only one person’s opinion that ultimately mattered in helping Ryan make his decision: Ryan Jaroncyk. Today, Ryan is a successful writer, remarried and living in California.