He just wouldn’t be denied.
Former Telecom star Josh Palacios grew up around baseball. His uncle played in the big leagues with the Kansas City Royals, his father played in the Detroit Tigers minor league system, and he wanted to follow that same path.
But despite his big-league bloodlines, Palacios never received any special treatment. He was cut from the Xaverian High School squad as a sophomore and chose to transfer to another school to keep playing ball. Instead of allowing that setback to put an end to his dream, Palacios used it as motivation. Since then, he’s played on a city championship team, been a Division I standout and is a top Toronto Blue Jays prospect.
“I still think about it,” Palacios said. “That was the same year that they (Xaverian) won the city championship. It still sticks with me to this day.”
Palacios now plays with the Lansing Lugnuts, a Class-A affiliate of the Blue Jays, and is currently ranked as the number 15 prospect in the big club’s minor league system by Major League Baseball Pipeline. He’s come a long way from missing the cut on a his first high school team, but still, he uses it as motivation.
“No matter how much success I have, that’s always in the back of my mind, that I know I have to work harder, be better,” he said.
Palacios transferred to the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Bay Ridge to continue playing baseball, and ended up leading Telecom to a city title in 2013. Then, after bouncing around between Stony Brook University and San Jacinto Junior College in Texas, and turning down the Cincinnati Reds, who picked him in the 31st-round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, Palacios found a home at Auburn University.
For Palacios, Auburn was not only welcoming, but playing in the Southeastern Conference gave him a chance to experience the highest possible level of competition and intensity that the college game had to offer.
“Auburn was a great experience. Everything was top of the line, I think that’s the closest you get to The Show, until The Show,” he said, referring to the Major Leagues. “For other guys it might have been a bigger leap, competition-wise and the pitching that they face, but for me it was more of a small jump, because I was facing such great competition throughout the year.”
As a fourth-round pick in the 2016 Draft, Palacios hit .330 across three levels in the Toronto farm system. Now, as a highly-ranked prospect, he knows that while the expectations are high, the level of opportunity is higher.
“It means that they value me, and it gives me a chance. If I put in the work and I do what I have to do, I know that I’ll get a fair shot to make my dream come true,” Palacios said.
Palacios isn’t alone in chasing that dream; his younger brother, Richie, a rising junior at Towson, also aspires to play pro ball. ations as a rising junior at Towson. Palacios sees the family pressure from the past and the future as a blessing, and a source of support.
“It’s kind of like, people (get) carpentry and plumbing (skills) handed down, but (for us) baseball is just a handed-down business in our house,” he said. “And it helped me to get where I am today. Without (family) I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”
