Prospect Flashback: Picturing The Mariners’ Felix Hernandez In San Antonio, Before He Got to Seattle

By MiLB.com

Felix Hernandez hasn’t pitched in the Minors since he was 19 years old. And he only started pitching in the Minors when he was 17. That’s something, isn’t it? Makes you remember that this recent trend of teenage Harpers and Profars and others reaching the Majors isn’t all that new. Wildly impressive, yes, but, no, not all that new.

Hernandez, now 26, has been in the news lately, of course, in the wake of his new record-breaking contract (see story below). But before he got to Seattle, he was just a Minor League prospect, making stops with the following clubs: Everett, Wisconsin, Inland Empire, San Antonio and Tacoma.

Here is Hernandez as a Texas League hurler in 2004. He is 18, finishing up a season in which he went 14–4 (his overall MiLB record stands at 30–10 in 58 games, 48 of them starts). Click on any photo to begin the slideshow. For all past editions of Prospect Flashback, click here.

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SEATTLE — It was a reception fit for a King.

When Felix Hernandez arrived in Seattle on Wednesday afternoon to put official ink to his much-talked-about seven-year, $175 million contract extension, the Mariners ace stepped out of the field-level elevator at Safeco Field and was greeted with raucous cheers and a sea of about 100 team employees wearing yellow “King Felix” T-shirts. They held signs of his likeness and that of his comedic alter-ego, Larry Bernandez. They chanted his name until he covered his eyes, overcome with emotion.

Happy Felix Day, indeed.

“To all the people in Seattle that trust me and believe in me. I will say this: I will not disappoint you,” said Hernandez, who shed tears at various points during a news conference that also included general manager Jack Zduriencik and was attended by chairman and CEO Howard Lincoln, team president Chuck Armstrong and Hernandez’s agents, Wil Polidor and Scotty Pucino. “I’m doing this because I love this city, because I want to stay here. I don’t want to go anywhere else. I love this place. This has been my life. This has been my family.”

To continue reading MLB.com’s story, head here.