SEATTLE — For most of his life, Steven Souza Jr. poured everything he had into baseball. The game was his passion, and he was willing to put in the necessary time and work to achieve stardom.
The former Cascade High standout and current Tampa Bay Rays right fielder still likes the pouring analogy. Yet throughout an arduous eight-year minor-league career, he learned he had to pour into something other than himself.
So on Monday, Souza grabbed Rays pitcher Chris Archer, one of baseball’s brightest young stars, and headed up I-5 to give a pep talk to his former team on the afternoon of its Wesco 4A district playoff opener.
“I’ve really tried to pour back into that community,” said Souza, whose Rays are in Seattle for a three-game series with the Mariners, Tampa Bay’s only visit to Safeco Field this season.
“I know that if I had somebody that had made it to the big leagues, or any area, and was successful in an area I was pursuing coming and pouring into me, it would have meant a lot,” he continued. “So me and Chris took the opportunity to go encourage the boys before their first playoff game and talk to them about their lives ahead.”
There was a time when Souza might not have made that journey to South Everett. A third-round pick by the Washington Nationals out of Cascade in 2007, he eschewed a scholarship to Washington State and headed to the East Coast to begin his pro career.
That’s when his plans for a quick ascent through the minor leagues quickly derailed.
Souza admittedly spent too much time partying and drinking before he briefly quit the game in 2011 after never hitting above .237 or getting past the advanced Class-A level.
It took others pouring into him, he said, including former major-leaguer and Jackson High star Brent Lillibridge, and minor-league teammate Michael Taylor — now with the Nationals — to help Souza rediscover the Christian faith of his youth and refocus his career path.
“They really showed me what it meant to know Jesus and follow Him,” Souza said. “When I saw it clearly, it was like the light turned on and life was totally different.”
His on-field play also dramatically improved. Over the next two seasons he hit a combined .297 with 38 home runs and 131 RBI in 178 minor-league games.
Souza eventually debuted in the majors with the Nationals in 2014 before he was dealt to the Rays prior to the 2015 season.
“(Tampa Bay) gave me my first opportunity to play every day in the big leagues and I’ll forever be (grateful) for that,” Souza said. “That’s not to say anything against Washington because I love that organization a lot. But they had a logjam in the outfield. So to come over here and play with this team and this energy has been a lot of fun.”
Souza began to show flashes of the potential that had made him a third-round selection when he hit 16 home runs and drove in 40 runs in 110 games in what was an injury-filled 2015 campaign.
He entered Tuesday’s game hitting .265 with seven homers and 14 RBI for a Rays team that is hovering around the .500 mark in the always competitive American League East.
“(Last season) he couldn’t quite get on a consistent playing track or anything,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “But he made some really good adjustments this year and he’s had a couple of series where he’s just carried us. He’s in a really good spot. We’re excited for him to get home and play in front of a bunch of family and friends and continue to have success.”
About “50 to 60” of those family members and friends were on hand Monday. That included his parents, Steven Sr. and Tracy, and sister, Shantelle, among a group of several dozen behind home plate. There was another contingent of fans clad in Souza jerseys of varying hues of blue cheering him on from the right-field stands.
“To watch how he’s grown and who he has been surrounded by, and the leaders that have influenced him, and the amazing man that he’s become, he’s learned so much,” Tracy Souza said Monday after spending Mother’s Day weekend in Anaheim, Calif., where the Rays took on the Angels. “Adversity always makes you stronger. He’s matured. You do have to grow up through (the adversity).”
Souza went 0-for-4 in Tampa Bay’s 5-2 loss Monday to the Mariners at Safeco Field. That isn’t indicative of how he’s performed this season. After all, he was facing Seattle ace Felix Hernandez.
“He is starting to blossom, but he’s nowhere near his full potential and it’s cool because he recognizes that and he is constantly working to reach that potential,” Archer said. “He’s done some impressive things this first month of the season, but he knows and we know there’s a lot in there.”
Incidentally, Souza’s afternoon pep talk inspired the top-seeded Bruins, who erased a 5-1 deficit and went on to defeat the fourth-seeded Mount Vernon Bulldogs 6-5 in eight innings.
“I love pouring back into the youth as we did today, and doing anything to instill those type of things in the future,” Souza said. “I’ll love those opportunities.”
No doubt the Bruins would love those opportunities as well.
Follow Herald Writer Jesse Geleynse on Twitter @jessegeleynse.
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