/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63956477/m_basebl_auto_original_10197025.0.jpeg)
What has seemed almost inevitable for the last few years has finally come to fruition for one of this year’s senior Air Force baseball players. 2019 Air Force Academy graduate and now former Falcon slugger, Nic Ready, was taken by the Marlins in the 23rd round of the MLB draft.
The announcement comes within less than a week of his graduation from the Air Force Academy, where he was called up on stage to shake President Trump’s hand.
Ready is assigned to be a logistics officer at Charleston AFB in South Carolina and there has been mixed messages from Air Force and Pentagon leadership as to what the future holds for his baseball career. There is hope that he will be able to play as soon as this year with examples like Griffin Jax, a 2017 USAFA graduate who now pitches in the Minnesota Twins organization with great success, while simultaneously serving in the Air Force.
Regardless of whether Nic will be able to play soon or if he has to put professional baseball aspirations on hold, it’s a tremendous achievement. He can now add MLB draftee to a laundry list of athletic accolades such as Collegiate Baseball News All-American, Perfect Game/Rawlings All-American, All-Mountain West, and the College World Series Home Run Derby Champion.