Nick Fanti's baseball journey has current stop with Long Island Ducks with dreams of The Show
Long Island Ducks pitcher Nick Fanti delivers a pitch in the 8th inning against the Charleston Dirty Birds, Tuesday, July 2, 2024 at Fairfield Properties Ballpark. Credit: George A Faella
Nick Fanti’s return to professional baseball was a long time coming.
Two thousand and eight days came and went between the former Phillies prospect’s last pro pitching appearance in Australia in December 2018 and his first with the Ducks last month.
Fanti, 27, had three career-altering surgeries — a shoulder surgery in 2019, Tommy John surgery in 2021 and another elbow surgery in 2023 — while navigating a lengthy and sometimes dark road back to the mound.
But the former Hauppauge High School star has earned another chance with the Ducks, emerging as a viable bullpen option and re-opening a potential road to The Show. Fanti, who signed with the franchise on June 21, boasts a 2.57 ERA with 11 strikeouts and no walks in his first seven innings.
“I’m really enjoying hanging out with the team again, or just being on a team in general,” Fanti said. “But to be able to come back and play for the Ducks, so close to home, I have history on this field, and just coming here growing up, it’s a nice little full-circle moment for me.”
As a Hauppauge senior, Fanti earned 2015 Newsday Long Island Player of the Year honors and the Carl Yastrzemski Award as Suffolk’s top player. He threw back-to-back no-hitters, the latter a 16-strikeout gem against Huntington at the home of the Ducks, Bethpage Ballpark (now-Fairfield Properties Ballpark).
“It was just fun to sit back and just watch a once-in-a-generation kind of person, baseball player and human being just do what he does best,” Hauppauge baseball coach Josh Gutes said.
The Phillies selected Fanti in the 31st round (924th overall pick) of the 2015 MLB Draft, and he quickly rose through the ranks. After he went 7-0 in rookie ball in 2016, his progress continued in 21 starts for Class A Lakewood in 2017. Fanti twirled a no-hitter and the first 8 2⁄3 innings of a combined no-hitter that season.
He was promoted to High-A Clearwater in 2018 and threw 28 2⁄3 innings between injured-list stints. Between rookie, A and A+ ball with the Phillies, Fanti had a 20-6 record, a 2.93 ERA and 224 strikeouts in 218 1⁄3 innings.
He pitched for Australia’s Sydney Blue Sox at the end of 2018, throwing his final 27 innings before the injury bug hit.
“Any time he’s had an opportunity to pitch within the Phillies organization when he’s been healthy, he dominated,” Gutes said. “He’s just — he’s had some tough luck.”
While sidelined in 2019, Fanti still was in Philadelphia’s farm system. The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 minor league baseball season. Fanti’s May 2021 surgery wiped out another season, and he elected free agency that November.
Fanti briefly re-signed with the Phillies’ organization in May 2022 but was released that August without an appearance. He was preparing for his second appearance with Italy in the March 2023 World Baseball Classic after pitching for Italy in 2017, but his third surgery in five years derailed that opportunity.
During his first recovery, it was easy for the then-22-year-old Fanti to compare himself to peers who were still in college and without jobs. But as he grew older, he likened his absence to “running in mud” as he saw friends getting engaged, starting families and buying houses.
“I always wanted to come back each time,” Fanti said. “But you start to feel like a bit of a . . . you feel like you’re a hassle with people. I’m hurt, and people are helping me out.”
Fanti credited the strong support from his immediate family: his father, Nick; his mother, Laura, and his four older sisters, Claudia, Christie, Danielle and Ashley.
As Fanti finally got healthy, he had to adapt. He has a stronger fastball, now clocked at 95 mph, a changeup, a curveball and a new slider, which he used for his first Ducks strikeout.
“He looks like a big-league lefty, and I will put that against anybody,” Ducks pitching coach Bobby Blevins said. “His velocity’s there. Now it’s just an honest communication of how you feel afterwards, and then what’s good pain and what’s bad pain and what’s stiffness in this and coddle him a little bit.
“But then also have him trust himself to push him through these little aches and bumps because your goal is the big leagues, and they’re not going to baby you anymore.”
Eight Ducks already have had their contracts purchased by a major league or foreign organization this season.
Thirty-seven of Fanti’s 47 minor-league appearances were starts. He eventually could return to that role — perhaps later this year — but is focused on helping the team however he can.
What does success ultimately look like?
“At the end of the day, I think everyone’s answer should be: Where do you want to end up this year?” Fanti said. “It should be ‘I want to win a championship’ or ‘I want to be in the big leagues.’ So that’s always going to be the goal, to win a championship here first and then make it to the big leagues eventually.”
Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.