St. Paul Saints welcome new pitcher Connor White

(FOX 9) - When it is time to play ball once again at CHS Field, a new member of the St. Paul Saints will suit up thanks to an upload on social media.

The team’s virtual tryout over the last few weeks let players across the country make their pitch to play. The Saints held an online vote over the last few days after selecting a final four hopefuls, but only one could get a coveted invite to the clubhouse.

That lucky player is Pitcher Connor White. 

“I was sweating, but I was pretty pumped,” White said. “I probably looked like Tiger Woods finishing a putt with all of the fist pumps going on.”

White grew up playing ball in the Pacific Northwest and is now making the move to the upper Midwest to pursue a passionate dream. 

“I kind of took a shot in the dark in submitting the video pretty last second, I think I got it in an hour before the deadline,” White said. “I figured there was always a chance to get an opportunity to get in front of somebody (via social media).”

Connor’s baseball journey started out as a catcher, but then it brought him to the mound. He signed with the University of Portland in Oregon as a pitcher for only two seasons where he started to excel. It’s a relatively new position that Connor starting playing in spring of 2018 and one he is now pursing as a pro.

“I ended up pitching better than I could hit,” White said. “It turned out that that was going to be my path moving forward. What I have on the mound now is night and day.”

White is able to throw better than 90 mph consistently now, too.

He trains with Driveline Baseball outside of Seattle in Kent, Washington at a facility that uses data and sabermetrics to improve players’ skill sets from across the country, including Cleveland Indians ace Trevor Bauer. 

Connor now hopes to bring those high heat pitches to a higher level of baseball. 

“Definitely a full time spot,” White says of what he wants out of this opportunity. “I want to be part of the team and to help contribute to a bunch of wins. (I want to) throw a bunch of innings and play a lot of baseball.”

Connor added that he has never been to Minnesota, but he does have a connection to the Twins organization. His cousin Caleb Hamilton is a catcher in the team’s farm system.