By Mike London
Salisbury Post
GASTONIA — It’s been 10 years since Bryan Blanton was a freshman World Series hero for Catawba College in 2015, and it’s been eight years since the New York Yankees made him a 21st-round draft pick.
The right-hander’s 30th birthday is creeping closer — Dec. 19 – but he still has some bullets left. Skeptics would say that it’s time for him to settle down and start a family, but Blanton loves baseball enough to keep chasing his dream. He’ll pitch until his right arm tells him he can’t or until every team in professional baseball tells him they don’t need him.
“I live in Charlotte and play for the Gastonia Ghost Peppers, so baseball is still an option for me financially,” Blanton said. “I’ve still got a strong drive to compete and as long as I can perform at a high level, I plan to keep doing this. I’ll play baseball as long as I can. I’ve made so many great friends in this game, life-long friends. The friendships have meant more than the saves or the strikeouts.”
Blanton was fortunate to grow up in Albemarle under the guidance of a baseball dad (Mike), who coached him from T-Ball through middle school. Blanton wasn’t exceptionally big (6-0, 190), but he was a three-sport athlete for the Albemarle Bulldogs, all-conference in football and basketball as well as baseball, but he was best in baseball.
Blanton was playing shortstop for the Stanly County American Legion team against Rowan County when coach Jim Gantt, who coached Rowan Legion as well as Catawba, noticed that Stanly’s shortstop had a howitzer attached to his right shoulder. He didn’t know if Blanton could hit South Atlantic Conference pitching or not, but he was confident Blanton could pitch in the league.
Catawba became the second school to make Blanton an offer. The first was Brevard, and Blanton preferred Gantt, Newman Park and Catawba. He signed in the fall of his senior year. Blanton’s senior high school baseball season at Albemarle brought a 6-1 record, an 0.40 ERA and All-State honors, and it was clear Catawba had been fortunate to add an under-the-radar flamethrower to a powerful team.
Blanton was buried on the depth chart when his freshman season began, but he began to make an impression on coaches. His fastball crackled and hissed, and he feared no one. Best of all, he was loose and ready after firing two warmup pitches in the bullpen.
Blanton’s fondest college memory is from his freshman year — the 2015 D-II World Series in Cary.
Catawba was in a struggle with Wilmington (Del.).
“We’re up 3-2 in the seventh and Coach Gantt hands me the ball,” Blanton said. “My mindset was that I wanted to be in that situation. I pitched the rest of the game, and we won it. Coach Gantt’s confidence in me at Catawba has been important in my life. In those college years, you grow up and change from relying on parents for everything to making your own decisions. Gantt taught us how to make good ones. He taught us responsibility and accountability.”
Catawba discovered a solid-gold closer that day in Cary. Blanton proved to be devastating in that role in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. He posted 25 saves for the Indians, including 17 his junior year. He struck out 116 in 84 innings during his three college seasons. Blanton had a slider and a changeup, but mostly he challenged and overpowered hitters with the heater. He was consistently throwing 91 to 93 mph.
“I haven’t started a game since high school,” Blanton said. “A starter has four or five days to prepare to pitch, but a relief pitcher has to be mentally ready to go every day. I liked being that guy who was ready to go every day.”
Blanton was pitching the summer after his junior year for the Asheboro team in the Coastal Plain League. He was eating a meal and casually following the late-round draft updates on his phone when he saw that the Yankees had drafted Bryan Blanton in the 21st round. He hadn’t heard anything from the Yankees, so he was stunned. He called his father. His dad was equally surprised, but that surreal moment turned out to be very real. When the draft smoke cleared, Gantt had unexpectedly lost Blanton and another Stanly County phenom — slugging catcher Zac Almond.
The Yankees offered $50,000. It took Blanton about two seconds to sign. No one blamed him. Everyone, including Gantt, was thrilled for him. This was the dream. Blanton jumped at the chance to play pro ball.
For a while there in the late summer of 2018, it looked like the Yankees had discovered the next Nolan Ryan. Blanton pitched 16 innings for a team of Yankee rookies in Florida. He racked up five saves and posted a 1.06 ERA. He dominated totally — 19 strikeouts and zero walks.
In 2018, Blanton played in Pulaski, Va., a higher-level rookie league, and didn’t fare as well, but in 2019, he pitched for three different Class A teams. He was successful, posting a 2.91 ERA in 26 appearances.
But that was a turning point in his journey. Blanton wouldn’t pitch again for more than two and a half years, and the clock started ticking against him. COVID wiped out a minor league season. Blanton had two surgeries on his pitching arm during that idle stretch.
He wasn’t a Yankee for very long after that. He was smarter than he’d ever been as a pitcher when he returned to the Yankees’ farm system in 2022, but now he was 26 and no longer considered a prospect. He was released after 10 games in the summer of 2022. That was the last time he pitched in “organized” baseball, with “organized’ meaning pitching for a minor league team that is affiliated with MLB.
The independent leagues were the only option for Blanton. He pitched the rest of the 2022 season in Winnipeg, Canada.
In 2023, he enjoyed his first tour of duty with the Gastonia franchise in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. They were known as the Honey Hunters then, not the Ghost Peppers. They kept him busy, as he relieved in 57 games. He saved eight and struck out 78 in 61 innings.
Next came stints in Venezuela and Australia. The hope was that those overseas ventures would be springboards to bigger opportunities back in the states, but nothing materialized.
“I pitched in a 40,000-seat stadium in Venezuela with 30,000 screaming fans in the stands,” Blanton said. “The people there are passionate about baseball, and they stay loud for nine innings. It’s different. It’s definitely an adrenaline rush. It felt like being in the big leagues.”
In 2024, Blanton returned to Gastonia for another round. He also pitched in 13 games in Mexico, where he had a 3-0 record. He was happy he took Spanish in high school and at Catawba on his jaunts to Venezuela and Mexico.
“Well, I know how to order chicken-and-rice,” Blanton said with a laugh. “I can speak Spanish well enough to communicate and get by.”
The 2025 season has found Blanton back in a Gastonia uniform for the third season. He’s pitched in 34 games, with three saves. He’s whiffed 64 in 45 innings.
He recently broke the Gastonia franchise record for strikeouts when he recorded his 167th.
“That record does mean something,” Blanton said. “Especially with me getting all those strikeouts as a relief pitcher.”
While the Atlantic League is a long-shot league, it’s not a no-shot league. There are several Atlantic League alumni in the big leagues. It’s considered one of the strongest independent leagues.
One of Blanton’s 2023 teammates was JC Escarra, who had been released by the Baltimore Orioles before reviving his career in Gastonia. Mostly a catcher, Escarra batted .348 for Gastonia and also displayed unexpected defensive versatility. That led to him getting a shot in the Mexican League, and success in Mexico led to his return to “organized” baseball.
Escarra was signed by the Yankees in 2024. He has played in 39 MLB games this season as a 30-year-old rookie. He’s even hit two homers.
“A lot of people know JC’s story,” Blanton said. “This league is about getting chances and making the most of it if you get an opportunity. JC showed us what can happen if you keep at it.”
Blanton was playing for the Asheboro team in the Coastal Plain League in the summer of 2017
