McAtee signs minor-league contract with White Sox

In a small town, it’s rare that an athlete reaches the professional ranks of a sport.
       
Former local baseball stars like Chris Bassitt and Jase Bowen are two that have become professional baseball players.
       
Bassitt is a starting pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays while Bowen was most recently an outfielder in Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate, Altoona.
       
Now Oak Harbor native Aric McAtee can add his name to that prestigious list.
       
The 2018 graduate of Oak Harbor High School recently signed a minor-league contract with the Chicago White Sox, and he is currently with the team in Glendale, Arizona for spring training.
       
A journey that started in a quintessential small town has seen the youngest of four boys graduate from Stetson University to get to this point.
       
As a senior with the Hatters, McAtee pitched 17 games, which included nine starts. He went 3-3 with a 4.19 ERA and Stetson won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season and tournament titles before going 1-2 in the NCAA Regional Tournament.
       
“Winning the conference was awesome – it was probably the best moment I’ve had in baseball,” he said. “It was one of the coolest experiences, probably the best baseball experience I’ve had to date.”
       
McAtee was supposed to have his pro day on Jan. 25, but the White Sox stepped in and offered him a contract because of how much they wanted to sign him.
       
“A few teams were speaking with my agent at the end of December and the beginning of January. They kept reaching out and were just asking about me. I had a pro day set for Jan. 25, and I pretty much conveyed to my agent that I’m looking to go somewhere (for) spring training,” McAtee said. “I didn’t want anything crazy as far as the contract. My agent was telling the rest of the teams that I would sign on my pro day, so I guess the White Sox didn’t want me to go to the pro day, and they signed me a few days before it. My agent called and gave me the rundown.”
       
McAtee said he sees Bassitt, a Curtice native who graduated from Genoa High School in 2007, as something of a role model.
       
“I actually looked up to him,” said McAtee. “And still do, (as I’m) trying to make it to the big leagues.”
       
Chicago hopes that McAtee can be a starter for them someday.
       
In each of the last two summers, McAtee pitched for the West Virginia Black Bears of the MLB Draft League. In ‘24, he went 0-3 in nine starts with a 4.02 ERA.
       
David Carpenter, a former Major League pitcher who pitched for nine seasons, was the manager for the Bears when McAtee pitched for them. (Carpenter is now the manager of Miami’s Triple-A affiliate, the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.)
       
Another former player, Ezequiel Carrera, who played outfield for seven seasons in the big leagues, including with Cleveland and Detroit, was the pitching coach.
       
“It was a great experience. It was my first taste of what pro ball was going to be like. In college, you play one game during a week, then a series on the weekend. Pro ball, you play every single day of the week,” said McAtee. “That was my first taste of it; it was awesome. It was cool to have everyone act in a professional manner, learn the ins and outs. My head coach was a big leaguer, David Carpenter, and it was awesome to be able to pick his brain. Ezekiel Carrera, who played for the Indians and the Tigers was my hitting coach. It was great having him there to talk to.
       
“I remember watching them on TV. Carp is one of the best guys I’ve ever met. They’ve been with guys who have seen it all. You don’t get the experience every day to talk to a big leaguer. It was very accessible. The competition was great. I got to play against high-level competition, against players from the ACC, SEC and Big 10, just like you’ll see in the minor leagues.”
       
McAtee talked about the difference between pitching in high school and at a Division I university.
       
“In high school, you could really just get away with a fastball with high velocity, especially in our area, and an okay breaking ball,” he said. “Getting to college, it’s a different level. You need to have two above-average pitches for strikes, and less than that, you’ll struggle in college, at least at the schools I played against.”
       
McAtee’s collegiate career began at the University of Toledo in ‘19, and he took some time off during the coronavirus pandemic before returning three years later at Florida Southern College, a Division II university located in Lakeland.
       
“Going to UT was difficult, (but) I grew as a person,” he said. “I was not able to go out there and play because I was hurt.”
       
“I got a fresh start at Florida Southern. I was healthy; I was throwing the ball, and they gave me a great opportunity to start there. That’s where it started to change for me. I just learned the art of pitching, how an inside fastball sets up the breaking ball. You can manage your misses, depending on your next pitch, and learn to just throw everything for strikes. At Florida Southern, I started to grow as a pitcher.”
       
In ‘23, McAtee went 6-5 with a 3.91 ERA, and the year before that, he went 7-2 with a 3.19 ERA.
       
Then he transferred to Stetson, which is located in DeLand, Florida, approximately 25 miles southwest of Daytona Beach.
       
“Stetson is where I really started to put everything together. I felt like I was a true, complete pitcher,” McAtee said. “The staff helped me out tremendously. I knew my identity as a pitcher, what I felt, what was easy, what pitches to attack with.”
       
McAtee, who is 6-5 and weighs 215 pounds, talked about growing up with his three brothers — Dereck, Damian and Ty.
       
“Just growing up and them being older, watching them play and doing stuff, and always being a competitive kid was great. Being the younger sibling and watching people better than you play, I feel like it impacted me as a kid to become better,” McAtee said. “They were pretty hard on me when I was younger, when they were still in the house. They wanted me to be a catcher, everyone in my family was a catcher. (But) I grew, and we knew my knees probably wouldn’t be able to last.
       
“I love my brothers to death. I know I could call them at any time. They pushed me every step of the way,” he said.
       
McAtee said his parents, Rick and Brenda, were great role models for him.
       
“They’re awesome, they’re two of the most hard-working people I’ve met,” said McAtee. “That was instilled with me forever, that nothing is ever going to be handed to me. Some people can just say that, and other people can show you, and they led by example.”
       
McAtee played baseball for Rob Schimmoeller for one season and the last three for Nick Lance.
       
“It was good,” McAtee said. “I enjoyed my experience at Oak Harbor.”
       
McAtee was a good basketball player and also played golf before going out for the football team as a senior, where he excelled as a wide receiver.
       
He talked about some of his great memories from playing sports for the Rockets.
       
“I would say my senior year of basketball, I’ll always remember that season. I just think it was because from my freshman through junior year, we weren’t very good. I talked to a couple of my buddies, and we were sick of sucking. We worked really hard as a group, and I miss basketball more than anything,” said McAtee. “I loved that season, we were really good as a unit. I remember winning the sectional championship – that was really fun. I do miss football. I know I only played one year, but I remember that being a fun time. It was such a fun time being with my buddies playing football.”
       
McAtee is also a man of great faith.
       
“My faith is very important to me,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve worked on growing closer to God. I just have experienced that, and it helped me as a person.”