Pranks, Tears, and Pure Joy: How Bats Players Got the Call

It’s the moment that comes right before the one they dreamed about as kids.

Stepping onto a Major League field is the culmination of decades of work and sacrifice. But before the bright lights and roaring crowds of tens of thousands, the journey often begins in a cramped Minor Leauge manager’s office, a room often hardly bigger than a walk-in closet, where careers change in a moment.

Sometimes these meetings involve practical jokes or pranks, but they almost always involve tears.

It’s a moment that players, coaches, and teammates never forget: the moment a player gets the news that he’s going to the show.

Recently, we caught up with a few members of both the Louisville Bats and Cincinnati Reds, as well as Manager Pat Kelly, to hear the inside stories of their calls to the show. Their stories range from simple phone calls to extravagant pranks. Below are their stories in their own words.

Interviews have been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

Chase Burns

Just a year out of college, the number two pick in the 2024 MLB Draft’s rapid ascension through the minors made his callup appear inevitable by the time he joined the Bats in June. The 22-year-old Burns was still learning the ins and outs of the dress code at the Triple-A level when Kelly called him into the manager’s office at Louisville Slugger Field.

“He was leaving the ballpark, and I was in the coach’s office,” Kelly said. “I saw him walking down the hallway and he had a pair of shorts and a t-shirt on. So, I brought him into the office and I said to him, ‘Hey, you can’t dress like that. You’re a professional. Especially because of where you’re going to be tomorrow.’ Then he figured out what we were talking about. He was telling me that Blake Dunn was his roommate and told him it would be ok and that made it better because he got real defensive.”

“I was wearing shorts to the field, and I was skeptical if I was allowed to wear it or not,” Burns recalled. “I’d been thinking about it a lot. So, when he called me into his office, he asked me what I was wearing, and I thought it was about the shorts. But really, he was just messing with me and telling me I would need to wear something a little more professional when I was going against the Yankees. It caught me off guard. I thought he was joking around, then he said it again and it finally hit me. It was an awesome moment.”

Andrew Abbott

About halfway through the 2023 season, Andrew Abbott was on a tear. He was looking forward to a visit from his family, who traveled to Louisville to watch him throw on a Sunday afternoon at Louisville Slugger Field. Having already thrown the Tuesday opener against Worcester, Abbott was preparing for a rematch on the Sunday afternoon. But on Saturday, those plans quickly changed.

“It was Saturday, and I was just having my regular throwing program, going through the stretches the meetings, all that kind of stuff,” Abbott said. “PK and (Pitching Coach Virgil Vasquez) were walking out to the foul pole going over everything like they always did. Then as they were coming back, they turned left, right around me and they come straight out to me in the outfield. I was wondering what I had done. Then PK told me I wasn’t throwing tomorrow, which was the intended day on Sunday, I was going to throw on Monday. I knew that the minor leagues don’t play on Monday, so it didn’t add up. He said, ‘Well, you’re not making a start down here. You’re making it in Cincinnati.’ My response was, ‘Are you ----ing kidding me?’ Then all the guys who were there around me to congratulate me. It happened real quick.”

Graham Ashcraft

In May of 2022, Graham Ashcraft was the Bats’ best pitcher, boasting a 1.65 ERA through his first seven starts of the season. As he was preparing for an upcoming start in Nashville, Ashcraft was called into Kelly’s office. With the effects of the pandemic still lingering, the premise of the meeting did not seem like a good thing for Ashcraft and fellow pitcher Randy Wynne.

“We had just come in from batting practice and then right before the game PK called me and Randy Wynne into the training room. He told us we were going to have to isolate because COVID was going around,” Ashcraft said.

“They were cooking up this thing where we were all going to have COVID and get tested. Then they told us nothing is happening on the COVID side of things, but Graham is getting called up,” Wynne recalled. “I was in on it, wearing a mask, acting like I just got tested. I remember Graham coming in and being in disbelief.”

Ashcraft remembers the exchange vividly.

Ashcraft: “Isolate me? What are you talking about? I just came here with the whole team. I wasn’t around anyone that had COVID. I didn’t ride up here with the guys that drove separately.”

Kelly: “Yeah, well, you know what? It’s all right, because you’re going to be playing in the big leagues anyway.”

“It was really funny, because he had Randy in on it. Randy was acting sick the entire time and had me fooled,” Ashcraft said. “I was worried that I was about to have to go sit in a hotel for seven days because I’m sick and I don’t even feel sick. That one was funny.”

Will Banfield

In his first season in the Reds organization, Will Banfield quickly impressed in spring training, becoming a favorite of the coaching staff and starting the 2025 season as the Bats’ primary catcher. While his offense struggled at times in Louisville, Banfield excelled with his pitch calling and arm behind the plate. So, when the Reds needed a catcher after Tyler Stephenson’s injury, Banfield was the top choice.

It’s the moment you dream about as a kid.

Here’s how Will Banfield found out he was going to the big leagues. #MadeInLou pic.twitter.com/6dijhc5Lwo

— Louisville Bats (@LouisvilleBats) August 20, 2025

The problem? On August 19, at about 7:45 p.m., Banfield was already behind the plate in Nashville, warming up starter Adam Plutko in the first. That’s when the call came in, Banfield was headed to the show. Kelly did something he’s never done before, pulling a player off the field before a pitch was even thrown.

“We were in the dugout going to the bottom of the first and our trainer Steve Gober got a call from our farm director Jeremy Farrell. They told me we needed to get Banfield to Los Angeles. We told Jeremy he was on the field and Jeremy told us to take him out,” Kelly said. “So, I walked out to the umpire and told him what was going on. Then I got Will and walked him back to the dugout, telling him he was going to the big leagues. I don’t think he believed me till he got to the dugout, and all his teammates were giving him hugs.”

“I sat down behind the plate for the bottom of the first, caught all the warmup pitches, threw down to second. Then before I could call the first pitch of the game, PK came walking out. I was clueless about what was happening in the moment,” Banfield said. “Then he told me I was coming out. I was mad. In my head I was like, ‘What did I do? Did something happen? Do I have the wrong jersey on?’ So walking off the field, getting back to the steps, he told me what was happening, and it didn’t really hit me until I was back in the clubhouse. It was surreal. I’m very blessed and fortunate for the way it happened because it was out of the ordinary.”

Sal Stewart

For most players that are ranked as their organization’s top prospect, it’s not a matter of if they will get called up, it’s a matter of when. The 21-year-old joined the Bats after the All-Star break in mid-July and was arguably the top player in the International League during his time in Louisville.

In just 38 games for the Bats, Stewart hit a scalding .315 with 10 home runs, 36 RBI, and a .629 slugging percentage. As Stewart continued to rake for the Bats, his callup appeared imminent.

As September roster expansion approached, Stewart was an obvious candidate for a promotion. With rare advance notice, Kelly and his staff called a team meeting under the guise of a scouting session on the opposing team. Stewart had no idea his life was about to change.

“I wanted to make sure it was in front of the whole team because Sal had moved up and fit in really well with the team. We normally have a hitters meeting where we go over the opposing pitcher. So I just invited the pitchers to come in because I wanted them to get the perspective of our hitters, and just use that ruse,” Kelly recalled. “Then [Edwin] Rios was able to give me a good translation in Spanish that I could give to him, so we were able to play it out.”

Better Call Sal.

The moment Sal Stewart found out he's a big leaguer ❤️ pic.twitter.com/VTKl8pHFcb

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 1, 2025

After finding out the news he always dreamed of hearing, Stewart got one last surprise on the diamond at Louisville Slugger Field.

“We had a day or two to prepare, which normally you don’t get. We were informed he was going to go up on September 1. Trainer Steve Gober and I were able to get together and realized he works out with Manny Machado,” Kelly said. “He talks about Machado all the time. So, Steve came up with idea of getting Manny to say something to him so we could put it on the board. I don’t think you could ask for a better reaction that what we got.”

Before he left, Stewart got some final advice from his Triple-A skipper before joining the Reds.

“I told him I was proud of him, that he had earned it, and to go have fun. For such a young kid, he’s got a very professional approach. So, I think he’ll handle this really well.”