Jordan Proving There’s More To Love Than Just His Glove

By Brian Tom

By Washington Huskies

December 13^th, 2017

Nothing has come easily on the baseball diamond for Washington senior second baseman Levi Jordan. The Puyallup, Wash., native has never had anything given to him, and he has certainly never expected it to be that way. As a 5-foot-8 underdog on the field, he has always had to work extra hard to get ahead in the game and prove himself to doubting opponents.

So it may seem funny – or it could be just who Jordan is – that when he was offered a partial baseball scholarship (he came to Washington as a walk-on), he turned the money down. Jordan instead was able to receive some academic aid and ultimately was able to politely decline the baseball scholarship to help out his team.

“He’s what college baseball should be about,” Husky Coach Lindsay Meggs said of Jordan. “He came in here not just because he wanted to be a Husky and play in the Pac-12, but he is a great student. He wanted to come to the University of Washington for the academics.”

Jordan Proving There’s More To Love Than Just His Glove

Not surprisingly, Jordan has excelled in the classroom. He has twice been named to the Pac-12 All-Academic honorable mention team during his career. Perhaps more surprisingly is how much success Jordan has had on the field from the get-go of his college career. He has been named Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 as a sophomore and junior, which is a pretty impressive accomplishment from a guy who arrived on campus with very little fanfare and no scholarship.

Jordan has always had to claw and fight for every opportunity he has had on the field, and it’s a trend that continued from the moment he first stepped foot on UW’s campus. After leading Puyallup to its first ever state title in the spring of 2014, he arrived at Montlake in the fall and began his career as a backup to shortstop Chris Baker. By the time the regular season started in January of 2015, Jordan moved over to second base and won the starting job.

He got off to a hot start with the bat, but by the end of the season his average dipped to .217. The one constant for Jordan – and something that has stayed consistently hot for him during his time as a Husky – was his dependable glove. He had just two errors in 206 chances for a .990 fielding percentage to lead all Pac-12 middle infielders.

Jordan once again found himself in a battle for playing time at the start of the 2016 season. Baker moved over to second to make room at shortstop for freshman sensation AJ Graffanino, forcing Jordan to wait patiently as a reserve. But true to his nature, Jordan did not pout. Instead, it just reminded him that he always has to play with a chip on his shoulder.

“(Coach Meggs) does a nice job of keeping that mentality with me because he knows I play best when some sort of competition is involved,” Jordan said. “It’s really him trying to get me going and to work harder, give me incentive to play the game harder and challenge myself to be a better player. It’s a good plan, rather than kind of relaxing into a role I was given, versus earned.”

Jordan referred to his time as a backup as “kind of a pause on my playing time,” but by the second Pac-12 series of the season in March, he forced his way back into the starting lineup at second against Oregon. Baker moved over to third base where he thrived in his new home and earned both All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Defensive honors, and Jordan finally had a comfortable stranglehold on the second base job.

Jordan ended up starting the final 40 games of 2016 at second after just four starts in the first 16 games. He hit .316 for the year and earned Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 recognition. And again, his glove was stellar, as he picked up the team’s Defensive Player of the Year recognition as voted on by his teammates.

Finally entrenched as the starter at second base, Jordan entered his junior season comfortable with his standing on the roster for the first time in his career. But, in typical fashion, nothing was a given for Jordan. This time, he suffered a hamate injury that required surgery and sidelined him in January. It turned out, Jordan showed very little patience as a patient and he return to action as a defensive sub in the first series of the season at Santa Clara. He resumed his starting role in the second series at St. Mary’s. He knew he couldn’t just sit on the sidelines and watch.

“Injuries are part of the game,” Jordan said. “It does give you an appreciation for the game when you’re not playing it. When it’s taken away from you it’s hard to be there and just watch when you know you could be contributing if you were healthy.”

Jordan’s quick return to action meant that he had to both play despite some discomfort and he had to shake off some rust because of the layoff. Of course, Jordan’s glove was its usual dependable self, but his timing at the plate took some time to recalibrate. By early April his average fell to .217. It took some advice from then-volunteer assistant coach Tanner Swanson to get Jordan back into the groove.

“I was caught in between the fastball and the off-speed pitch,” Jordan explained of his struggles. “Some of the words (Swanson) gave me were to think a little bit less and worry about hitting the ball on the barrel as hard as you can. I took that into consideration and made my bats less about the mechanics and the technique of the swing and more about committing to a pitch and getting my best swing off. Really, the approach went from thinking too much to hitting it as hard as I could, and that has worked for me.”

Unfortunately for Jordan, just as he was getting hot at the plate, the injury bug came back up and bit him again. He had raised his average all the way up from .217 on April 4 to .279 by May 13 when his season came to a screeching halt. After a double against Arizona State, Jordan tried to score on a hit to the outfield by Jack Meggs, but he would never make it to home plate. Steps away from scoring, he felt a pop in his left hamstring that sent him tumbling to the ground in pain.

“I see it off the bat and think no one is going to catch that so I’m going home for sure,” Jordan recalled of his final play of 2017. “I was probably three steps away from home plate when I planted my left foot. I tried try to pick it up, but it just felt like my left leg had been pulled out of its socket. It was a grade-two hamstring tear and I was lucky it didn’t rip off the bone.”

The diagnosis in May was that it was a four- to six-week injury, ending Jordan’s season pre-maturely and leaving the then-junior with not only disappointment, but lingering questions.

“It was pretty devastating. It was something I didn’t expect to happen,” Jordan said. “Who knows, things could have changed if I had stayed healthy and continued to hit the way that I was hitting. We could have made the post-season and maybe I would have ended up getting drafted.

“But, then I wouldn’t have been here for this season,” he said changing gears. “I’m convinced it happened for a reason, and a good reason at that. It will be a blessing in disguise. I’m happy to be back and happy to be rehabbing and taking care of my leg right now.”

Jordan still feels the lingering effects of the injury from time to time. He is working on breaking down scar tissue build up and regaining his strength and flexibility. He has been a mainstay rehabbing with trainer Iain Mistrot trying to get his complete range of motion back. For someone that has always had to work hard – extra hard, in fact – to become successful on the baseball field, his recovery requires rest – definitely something not innate to Jordan’s nature.

“I’ve been working day-in and day-out,” Jordan said of his rehab. “But, I took the summer off and didn’t play ball, I just did summer school. I rested as much as I could, and in fact, did yoga this summer. That helped. I just hope by the time the season comes, I won’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Meggs is also hoping that Jordan’s injury is a thing of the past. He is counting on him to help out in so many ways this season.

“He’s a really versatile guy offensively,” Meggs said. “You could hit him second, you could probably hit him third. We’ve talked about hitting him in the five or six spot because you’d like to have him up with runners on base. So he’s a guy that is valuable to me because depending on who we are facing – right-hander or left-hander – and the balance of our lineup, we can put him almost anywhere in the batting order.”

All the extra time Jordan has spent in the batting cages has helped him become one of the Huskies most dependable hitters. He has started 131 games so far in his three-year Husky career and has built a respectable .273 batting average in 477 at bats. But, as valuable as Jordan is to the batting order, it is his defense that makes him all-world caliber.

“Levi is what I would call an elite defender,” Meggs said. “He can change the game on defense. I think we really saw that a couple times last year when he really impacted the game. He’s as good as it gets at the four-hole.”

In the series opener against No. 1 Oregon State, Jordan preserved a 3-2 lead in the ninth inning by ranging into shallow right-field to make a diving stop of a ground ball that was destined to drive in the tying run from third base. Instead, Jordan made a diving stab to his left, got to his knees and fired the ball to first in time to get the final out of the game. It was one of many defensive highlights for Jordan that Husky fans have grown accustomed to seeing.

“Ever since I was a kid, I have loved to play defense,” Jordan explained of his seemingly innate ability with the glove. “It was at a young age that I fell in love with the defensive side of baseball. I thought it was cool. I loved to dive, I loved to get dirty back when I was a kid. I still do, as long as my body holds up.”

He has a sterling .984 fielding percentage while manning second base. Yet, scouts, opponents and plenty of other observers have probably underestimated, undervalued and underappreciated his talents. What most people first notice when they see Jordan on the field is an undersized player. Coach Meggs says opponents sometimes “take him for granted and just assume he’s going to be another eight-hole guy.” But, if you watch Jordan long enough – especially when he’s in the field playing defense – you can quickly become enamored with his grit and uncanny ability to reach anything in the field between him and seemingly Mt. Rainier, which looms in the distance over Husky Ballpark’s right-field fence. Now that his bat is catching up to his glove, Jordan is becoming even more dangerous.

“Usually he ends up making a game-changing play or he gets a big hit or he’ll make a great decision on the bases,” Meggs explained of Jordan’s intangibles. “If you let him slide below the radar, he’s going to come back to bite you.”

Jordan’s days of sliding under the radar are over. He is now a respected veteran and an unquestioned leader for the Huskies. He has gone from underappreciated and unheralded to invaluable and irreplaceable.

“If you love to coach, he’s the kind of guy you like to coach,” Meggs said. “I think every coach in this league would agree that you can’t have too many of those guys on your team.”