Getty Image / Julio Aguilar
The Tampa Bay Rays have just acquired Minor League pitcher Jeff Belge who is legally blind in one eye.
Belge’s right eye has vision somewhere between 20/300 to 20/400 and he is only able to make out ‘some colors and outlines of objects’ according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
The Rays are a team that has been able to remain competitive by identifying talent where other teams might look past it. Tampa has made the MLB Playoffs for four consecutive seasons despite maintaining one of baseball’s lowest payrolls. The Rays’ payroll is projected as 27th of 30 in the 2023 season, it was 23rd in 2022, 26th in 2021, and 28th in 2020.
Despite the lowly payroll, Tampa has been thriving in the AL East against big spenders like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. And they’ve primarily done so on the backs of stellar pitching. The addition of left-handed reliever Jeff Belge will seek to strengthen Tampa’s bullpen which sees more action than most with Rays’ pitchers kept on uncharacteristically short leashes.
After pitching for St. Johns, Jeff Belge was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers with the 551st pick in Round 18. Here he is throwing from the mound in college:
The accident that caused Jeff Belge to go blind in one eye
Marc Topkin writes about what led to Jeff Belge’s blindness in one eye:
Left-handed reliever Jeff Belge has limited vision in his right eye and is considered legally blind as the result of a freak accident as a 9-year-old when a piece of shale pierced his cornea, requiring two surgeries. He sustained another traumatic injury to the eye as a 17-year-old that required additional emergency surgery.
For those who aren’t familiar with shale. Here’s the definition according to the American Geo Sciences organization:
“Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that forms from the compaction of silt and clay-size mineral particles and is easily broken into thin, parallel layers. Black shale contains organic material that can generate oil and natural gas and trap the generated oil and natural gas within its pores.
Jeff Belge’s 2020 scouting report listed him as a 6’5″ left-handed pitcher. His fastball was around 92-95 MPH with an 81-84 MPH curveball.
In 32 innings pitched in 2022 with the MiLB Montgomery Biscuits, Belge carried a 3.66 ERA over 29 games with 50 strikeouts. He has pitched in a total of 78 games in the minors and now looks to take things to the next level with the Tampa Bay Rays.