At the height of Tebow-mania, our daily Links-master, Stirrups, commented on the inordinate amount of media coverage spent on Tim Tebow, despite the fact that he didn’t have great odds at making it to the majors. (In fact, Tebow currently has a sub-.500 OPS at AAA right now for the Mets.)
We decided that if the national media was going to focus on Tebow, we at Halos Heaven could find another prospect, someone valued, who wasn’t getting the same amount of attention as Tebow. We settled on Jordan Serena, a utility player who played collegiate at Columbia. Jeff Joiner was even able to interview J-Ser, as he was known on the site.
But where is he now?
According to Baseball Reference, Serena bounced around the minors to finish off 2017, even playing three games in AA Mobile. Overall, across three levels (Mobile-Inland Empire-Burlington), he slashed .208/.270/317, playing all infield positions and left and center field. He was a true utility man.
Last year, on March 14, 2018, the Angels released Serena, per his page on MLB.com. He ended up signing with the Québec Capitales of the Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, where he played in 35 games and hit .197/.271/.256. He has not yet played in 2019.
A quick check of his Twitter page shows that he has retired and is currently a baseball instructor.
He often tweets pieces of baseball wisdom that pop up on my Twitter feed:
I think “let the pitcher supply the power” and “lower your intent to allow your sequence to accelerate the bat efficiently” are the same thing.
— Jordan Serena (@jserena4) April 16, 2019
1/ More baserunning...
— Jordan Serena (@jserena4) April 3, 2019
The age old “read the downward plane” from 1B: if the ball is going to hit the dirt, the catcher is going to have to make a play on it, either a block or a pick. The goal from 1B is to break as soon as you see the downward plane
THREAD: Received word from a hitter last night that he did not make his high school team. Very saddening considering he:
— Jordan Serena (@jserena4) March 1, 2019
- is a freshman with a solid athletic base and has improved his swing over the last few months in our gym.
His career, like so many others before him, speaks to the grind that minor league baseball players go through. Serena had been playing baseball for a long time, yet he never got above AA.