DUNEDIN, Fla. — The road to professional baseball for Landen Maroudis is relatively short, which is great for his parents.
“It was a dream come true just for him to get drafted, even more so that he is local,” Landen’s father, Pete Maroudis, said. “We get to come out and see a lot of his games, see him develop as a baseball player coming from high school right around the corner. We couldn’t ask for a better situation.”
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Eight miles, to be exact, from where Landen went to high school at Calvary Christian High School in Clearwater to his new home field at TD Ballpark with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays.
“It’s awesome having friends and family come out and support,” Landen said. “It’s super cool and having some of my old high school teammates even come out and watch me. It’s been awesome and a dream come true.”
The former fourth-round pick was making some serious waves in his first couple of pro starts last season, but a UCL injury ended his 2024 campaign after only 10 innings pitched.
“It was definitely really tough. I put in a lot of work in the offseason to get ready for that first professional season,” he said. “It was unfortunately cut short. I kind of took this last year to work on myself and get better and make sure when I get back from this injury that I was better than I was before.”
“It’s a tough injury to come back from,” Landen’s mother, Reanna Maroudis said. “I think having his family and friends close by was a lot of help for him.”
Landen is rated as the seventh-best prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays system. That means his time in Single-A Dunedin might not be long. A promotion to Double-A Vancouver can happen at any moment.
That’s why Mom and Dad are soaking it all in while they can.
“Mom, not so much. Me, okay, move on and do his thing. If he goes to Vancouver, or when he goes to Vancouver, she’s going to be, like our first one, when he left the house, it’s going to be a crying moment for her, for sure,” Pete said.
Landen has been exceptional in his first nine minor league starts with a 2.41 earned run average, 0.950 WHIP, and he’s striking out a batter an inning.
“Everyone is just bigger, stronger, better eye,” Landen said. “You got to adjust. It’s the same game. You still have to go out, compete, throw strikes. It takes a little bit of adjusting but I feel like I’ve been doing a good job of it.”
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