A 16-year-old French girl named Melissa Mayeux was added to Major League Baseball’s international registration list over the weekend, meaning she will be eligible to be signed by a big-league club on July 2. MLB.com has the details:
s it possible that Mayeux will be signed? Sure. Is it likely? Probably not, but the simple fact that Mayeux has been added to the list solidifies her status as a legitimate player. Mayeux, for her part, just wants to play. She speaks little English and is unaware that her presence on the registry might be seen as newsworthy in the United States….
“She’s a legitimate shortstop who makes all the plays and is very smooth and fluid in the field,” (MLB Director of International Game Development Mike McClellan) said. “She swings the bat really well and is fearless.”
McClellan recalls an at-bat the right-handed Mayeux had during a tournament in Barcelona in April. She was facing a 19-year-old Dominican pitcher who was throwing 91 mph, which is considerably harder than most pitchers in her age group can throw. “She ripped a base hit off of him, just to the right of second base,” McClellan said. “She just went with the pitch, and she looked good doing it.”
The odds for any 16-year-old to ever reach the Majors are extremely long, and Mayeux’s are likely doubled by coming from a place that doesn’t produce a lot of baseball players. Her chances of seeing the big leagues are incredibly slim. But that she’s hitting 91-mph fastballs and getting invites to showcases means she has a better shot than the overwhelming majority of humanity.
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And the massive scope of professional baseball practically ensures that Mayeux will get a chance to prove herself somewhere if she’s as good as McClellan suggests. And if she plays well wherever she lands, she’ll get a chance to play at the next level up, and so on until next thing you know she’s starting at second whenever the A’s face a lefty and starring in Moneyball 2: Strength of the Euro.
Mayeux will face plenty of hurdles if she pursues the sport, but if she can play, she’ll play. On-base percentage doesn’t have a gender.
