Bio

Jordan Garr is a do-it-all, defense-driven dude.

"I'm sort of a Swiss-army knife. I can do whatever you need me to do," Garr said. "People say I'll even walk your dog for you when you need it."

That defensive dexterity has almost always found him a spot in the lineup. But last season, he never stayed in one spot too long.

We're not just talking about on the field. In 2021, he journeyed between five different teams, never able to stick around more than 15 games at any single stop.

Garr's glove is his golden ticket, but he knows it's really about "always trying to stay consistent and improve my offensive game. That's what really gets you paid now."

That attitude paid off in Idaho Falls, his first home for the '21 season. His days as a Chukar were chock full of run production. The Cali kid compiled 17 RBI and 15 runs scored, helping him to hit .321/.437/.464 in 15 games. Four of those games included multiple hits, his masterpiece a focused 5-for-5 flurry, including a dinger, a pair of doubles, a sac fly, six RBI, and three runs scored, against Rocky Mountain on June 6th.

Then, two and a half weeks later, he got released.

"Literally, word-for-word, the manager Billy Gardner said, 'I think you did everything right,'" Garr remembered. "That's just the way this works."

The next stop on his voyage came with the Voyagers. In Great Falls, Garr debuted with a 3-for-5 day that brought with it a double, two RBI, and four runs scored. More than half of his hits there went for extra-bases, including two touch-em-alls, and with eight RBI and 12 runs scored, he proved his run-producing prowess still played. Even so, his average sat at a modest .205, and Garr got released after 11 games.

So he went home, "and it was kind of a soul-searching trip." He did some traveling. He started coaching again. And then he got a bite from Bakersfield, where his previous Pecos League manager extended an opportunity to stay fresh.

It was only three games, but he socked six hits. He scored seven runs. He walked five times and only struck out once.

And after that short stretch in Bakersfield, he got a call from the American Association. It came from the Sioux City Explorers, to be exact, and they needed vaccinated players to cross the border for a series in Canada.

That's how Garr got one last go-round. He actually played two three-game series in Winnipeg: first with the Explorers, when he went 3-for-11 including one double, and then with the also-vaxxed-players-needy Milwaukee Milkmen, with whom he went hitless but did walk twice and score a run.

After those series, having played in three different leagues that spanned two countries, the utility man called it a year.

Call last season what you want. Garr calls it a success.

"It was still a blast. I was all over the country, running around and still being a kid at 27 years old," Garr said. "Can't complain too much. I was almost able to find a new confidence in my game and in my journey."