Mitch White never got to have a grand draft party watching MLB Network and waiting for the on-camera reaction.
He never received a “live look in” or a gaggle of local reporters trying to get instant interviews after his name was called. White never needed those to feel special when the San Francisco Giants called him.
That moment was in a hotel room this January, still riding the adrenaline from a pro day showcase with his father by his side. His phone rang and a 415 area code popped up, indicating San Francisco.
"I break down, I'm crying," White said. "It’s something I’ve worked for and I’ve played baseball since I was six, so 20 years. But really grinded it out over the last couple and finally getting the opportunity, I was just overwhelmed with emotion."
Those two decades were anything but a straight line to Richmond.
White grew up in Livonia, Michigan, just outside Detroit, and knew that the playing in junior college was the best route to continue his baseball career. A chance conversation with a teammate sent him to Lansing Community College as a walk-on. No scholarship, no guarantees, just an opportunity to play.
He and his team made the most of it. By his third year with the Stars, White and his teammates were nearly unstoppable, rattling off a 36-game winning streak on the way to a 44-3 record in 2021. White made a huge impact for the team’s incredible season, earning MCCAA Second-Team All-Eastern Conference honors, going 6-2 with a 3.48 ERA.
The wins kept a non-glamorous schedule worth every minute.
"You talk about having the most fun you’ve ever had playing the game,” White said. "It’s a lower-level junior college but you show up to the field with your guys and you just play every day and it’s so much fun. We just would steamroll everybody and we knew we were good talked a lot of smack but it was just a great time.”
The school did not have a ton of resources, leading to the team contributing their own money for a squat rack and a few hundred pounds of weights. They worked out of a small local facility, throwing off makeshift mounds through the harsh winters.
It was gritty, but it was home for White.
After spending three seasons at the JUCO level, White transferred south to Abilene Christian University in Texas. Multiple Division I offers were floated his way, but the warm weather swayed him.
“It just came down to who wanted me the most,” White said. “And really, money wise too, who had the biggest scholarship…I was like, cool I’m going to Texas. Well, I get down there and, wow, I’m in West Texas.”
White did not expect to be far away from other large cities in the state.
The on-field numbers weren't what he hoped for, but the year gave him discipline, faith and growth as a person. He credited ACU head coach Rick McCarty with shaping him in ways that had nothing to do with pitching.
"He doesn't even realize it but that year was a big part of my life," White said. "Just growing as a person, not even as much on the field. It was a great experience and met a lot of wonderful people.”
A transfer to the University of Cincinnati followed, bookended by two summer ball seasons with the Traverse City Pit Spitters back home in Michigan. It was there that he stopped just throwing hard and learned pitching more effectively.
After Cincinnati, his shoulder started aching. White shut himself down, trained through the offseason, and eventually got a call from the Schaumburg Boomers of the independent Frontier League. Head coach Jamie Bennett took a chance on him and kept taking chances even when White struggled early.
"Any other team, you're cut," White said. "But he gave me an opportunity again and again until I finally got my feet under me."
He rewarded that faith with back-to-back strong seasons, including 11 saves in 2025 a top-10 finish in the Frontier League, and a save in the championship series. The Boomers fell in five games to the three-time champion Quebec Capitales, with White on the mound for the final two innings of the deciding game. It stung. But it hardened him.
"I'm so grateful for Jamie putting me in those situations," White said. "It's ultimately what got me here."
His present day is spent at CarMax Park in his first season in the Giants system and in affiliated baseball. No assignments to the rookie leagues, a feeler in Single-A, but immediately diving into Double-A.
He got here because of his January pro day. During a second session White went out and struck out all three hitters he faced. An hour later at his hotel the phone rang.
Twenty years of indoor training, borrowed weights, West Texas heat, cold Michigan winters, an aching shoulder and independent ball had come down to that moment. Now walking into CarMax Park still feels unbelievable.
"In a way when I first arrived here, I was like “wow, I made it,’” White said. “You step into the clubhouse, and they did a wonderful job. It just has that big-league feel to it.”