PHOENIX -- The background story says Rockies right-handed reliever Dugan Darnell shouldn’t be here, much less immediately after being called up being asked to pitch in tight and winnable games.
Darnell was 5-foot-1 entering high school and a 5-9 infielder when he left. He played at Division III Adrian (Mich.) College. Graduation led to a marketing job in downtown Chicago. He left that to chase a baseball dream through independent ball (luckily with a league that played through the 2020 pandemic).
Finally, after emailing most every club multiple times, he signed with the Rockies in 2021. Earning a win in his debut added a layer of wildness to the game itself -- a 17-16 victory over the Pirates on Aug. 1.
Heartwarming events are made possible by ability that gets discovered. In Darnell’s case, after sustaining a separated shoulder in a home-plate collision to end his junior year, he was working with old high school teammates at a training facility when teammates noted he was throwing 93-94 mph and encouraged him to try pitching.
Many folks abandon that dream before finding out if it is possible. Even Darnell had that moment when he began pitching for Adrian.
“In fall ball, my first couple of outings, it was really hard,” Darnell said. “My arm was not in shape for that, coming off a separated shoulder. I was throwing hard. But after 10 pitches, my arm was hanging. I tried to quit.”
Who knows if Adrian’s longtime and still current head coach, Craig Rainey, saw Darnell’s journey taking him to baseball’s highest level? He did his job, coach to player, teacher to student.
“He looked at me and said, ‘That’s really selfish of you. Your team needs you. Get in the training room and figure it out,’” Darnell recalled. “I’m glad I listened to him.”
So are the Rockies.
They didn’t need Darnell, 28, and a rare rookie with significant amounts of silver in his hair, on Sunday during a 13-6 loss to the Diamondbacks at Chase Field -- the Rockies’ seventh straight loss. He pitched 1 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings Saturday night during a 6-5 loss to Arizona.
Save for that dark day in the fall of 2018, there has been no hint of quit in Darnell -- even if 2019 seemed a time to quit.
Adrian College was Division III, so there was no scholarship. Darnell’s first three years, he benefited from a tuition exchange because his mother, Mary Lou, was a professor at another Division III institute, now-defunct Marygrove College in Detroit. Then mom took a new job writing grants, which ended the tuition plan.
“I had to find a loan -- you know, the normal college experience,” he said.
After the 2019 season, Darnell played that summer in the Northwoods League, a collegiate summer league whose website notes that 370 alumni have played in the Majors. No one signed him out of that.
Then came a good job for a college graduate -- marketing for Huxley, a company that recruits financial advisers, with an office in downtown Chicago at the Franklin Center.
But baseball never released its grip.
“It was one of the hardest times of my life,” Darnell said. “Because I really, really felt there was more there. There was a higher ceiling that I didn’t hit. There was a lot more that I could have done. A bunch of ‘what ifs’ just haunted me.
“As soon as I got that shot -- a route -- to get these ‘what ifs’ off my back, I took it without a second thought.”
That route involved playing in independent leagues -- for the Gary (Ind.) SouthShore RailCats and for the East Side Diamond Hoppers (closer to his home with his now-fiancée, Emily Tatge) in 2019, and back to Gary in ’20 as the league found a way to play through COVID-19 restrictions.
Before Spring Training 2021, Darnell emailed “a lot … probably all 30,” teams with video and analytics from his throwing sessions, asking for a tryout.
Then-Rockies assistant general manager Jon Weil said Darnell repeatedly approaching “about five of us” with the team was “endearing.” And his stuff was legit enough to pass muster with Matt Obernauer, then a Rockies analyst.
“I called Dugan,” Weil said, “and went all ‘American Idol’ on him. I said, ‘We have no interest in having anybody watch you work out.’ He seemed immediately disappointed. I said, ‘We’re not going to work you out. We’re going to sign you.’”
As he climbed the Rockies’ system, Darnell found a kindred spirit in center fielder Brenton Doyle. Before winning Gold Glove Awards in 2023 and ’24, Doyle was a fourth-round Draft pick out of Division II Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va. They became close friends.
Tatge and Doyle’s wife, Rose, also grew close. Rose will serve as a bridesmaid at the wedding after the season. The couples lived in the same complex when they played together at Double-A Hartford in ‘22. They may finish this year as roommates in Denver as the wedding is planned.
“We both had some pretty difficult paths -- a couple of overlooked guys,” Doyle said. “What was in our favor was the work ethic we put into every single day to get to the big leagues and try to stay here a long time.”