From nap to Texas Rangers in 30 minutes. The story behind Sherten Apostel’s MLB debut
The driver racing through Arlington on Saturday evening near Randol Mill Road, the one who might have darted into your lane and you might have wanted to flip off, was Paul Kruger.
His passenger was Sherten Apostel, who only minutes earlier had been roused from a nap by a series of calls from Kruger. Once Apostel answered, he thought he was still dreaming.
Apostel is one of the Texas Rangers’ top 10 prospects. Kruger is the Rangers’ director of minor-league operations. Together, they successfully made the short trek from Apostel’s apartment to Globe Life Field so that he could make his MLB debut.
It happened fast. One minute Apostel was in bed, less than 10 minutes later he learned he was starting at third base, and 20 minutes after that he was on the field.
“Oh, my,” said Apostel, a 21-year-old from Curacao. “I found out exactly 20 minutes before the second game, to be exact. It was, like, 6:20 when Paul called me it was like, ‘Get ready and start running in your apartment. Get loose because you’re playing in the next game.’
“I was like, ‘Wait, what game? I just came from the practice.’ He’s like, ‘No, you’re playing in the big leagues. Get ready, get loose. I’m coming to pick you up.’”
As the first game of their doubleheader against the Oakland A’s was ending, Rangers brass wasn’t fully aware of Elvis Andrus’ back woes that would put him on the injured list between games.
However, they were aware that Anderson Tejeda was down with a stomach bug, and that’s what put the wheels in motion on Apostel.
Kruger said he called Apostel multiple times before finally getting him. Apostel was told there was a chance he would be promoted but might not play but to start preparing to come to the ballpark.
Once the Andrus news hit, the Rangers knew they would be short two infielders for Game 2 and needed coverage. Kruger said he and assistant general manager Mike Daly ran to their cars, Daly to fetch Apostel’s gear from the alternate camp at Globe Life Park and Kruger to fetch Apostel.
Kruger called Apostel, the player to be named in the 2018 trade of Keone Kela, while en route.
“I called him on the way there and said, ‘Hey, you’re starting,’” Kruger said. “He gets in the car, and we headed back.”
But even that wasn’t simple. Every traffic light was the wrong color, and Kruger’s miles-to-empty gauge had rolled below 10.
Apostel had ridden with Kruger previously in the Dominican Republic, where traffic laws seem optional at best. But there might have been a tense moment or two.
“He’s a good driver,” Apostel said. “He was like getting mad at the red lights because he was trying to get there. He was like, ‘Come on! Come on!.’ I was like, ‘Paul, take it easy. Are you trying to die?’
“But he was trying to get there. It was a little bit rushed. Every light kept turning red, like green to red, green to red. I was like, ‘C’mon!’ It gave me time to calm myself down, get a little bit settled, but at the same time I was trying to get there to be on time to play.”
Life was coming at Apostel pretty fast. He had time to quickly call his mom to let her know he was about to make his debut.
He essentially just pulled his uniform on over what he was wearing and headed to the field for some stretching and throwing. He had done some stretching and running in the parking lot outside his apartment while waiting for Kruger to arrive.
Everything slowed down when Apostel booted the first ball hit his way, which led to an unearned run during the A’s seven-run second inning.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, let it go. It is real,’” he said.
Though the game was a loss, Apostel rebounded to make a diving catch for an out and collected his first major-league hit in the seventh inning, a line drive to left-center. It came an inning after Sam Huff, who debuted Friday, collected his first MLB hit.
“I thought the left fielder was going to grab it,” Apostel said. “I was like, ‘Please don’t catch it, please don’t catch it, let it drop.’ When it sat down I was really happy.”
This story was originally published September 13, 2020 at 11:46 AM.
