Tualatin grad, OSU baseball player talks place on Cleveland’s Minor League affiliate
BEAVERTON Ore. (KPTV) - While the Major League Baseball season has begun, the Minor League campaign begins this week. Kyle Dernedde is a 24-year-old professional ball player last seen on FOX 12 as a quarterback under the Friday Night Lights playing for the Tualatin Timberwolves.
“Deep down it feels really amazing to have an opportunity and any day to continue to wear a jersey is a blessing,” Dernedde said.
The THS class of 2019 graduate spent four years at Oregon State on the baseball team as a business major before becoming a grad transfer with Michigan to gain a master’s degree in real estate development. But real life can wait.
“The game of baseball has given a lot to me,” Dernedde said. “People talk about it all the time, just how the game kind of reflects life in a lot of matters. How dealing with failure, I mean, it is a game of failure.”
After spending last season with Staten Island in independent ball, Dernedde is still chasing that big League dream when he was invited to spring training with the Cleveland Guardians and earned a roster spot with their Double-A affiliate in Akron, Ohio.
SEE ALSO:
“It definitely hit home for sure. Especially when I got the call, originally to come down to spring training, I was kind of at a loss for words and was just excited to get down here and roll with the opportunity but to have to come to fruition and actually be able to break camp with a team meant a lot to me so I can’t be happier,” Dernedde said.
The shortstop will once again team up with a fellow Beaver buddy on the farm, the overall number draft pick last spring, second baseman, Travis Bazzana.
“Trav and I got to play together up the middle for two years at Oregon State,” Dernedde said. “Two really successful years there.”
Dernedde said Bazzana is dedicated to his craft and the tame.
“I know the Guardians value him very highly and he’s due for another great year so just being able to be alongside him, be able to work together in drills like we’re back in college, now from a professional standpoint, is a pretty special experience and just watch him go about his everyday business and handle himself as a professional is very impressive,” Dernedde said.
However, there is one drawback for a former Beaver to play for Akron: the Rubberducks.
“That’s been a sensitive topic in the Dernedde household of having to wear a jersey that says Ducks on it, being a Beav and my dad being a Beav, just growing up in an Oregon State household. It’s definitely a controversial topic but at the end of the day I get to wear a jersey and I can’t be more pleased about that.”
Copyright 2025 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
