He wasn’t exactly sure what he was asking or suggesting after watching Sizemore go down but he knew if he stayed behind the plate he’d never make it to the big leagues. There were too many other guys on the team, guys with just as much talent as him and much more big league experience than he had. He had just spent the last season completely in Triple-A seething over his performance in 2011. During the off season he had taken it upon himself to become more marketable, to go down to the Dominican Republic and learn third base.

It wasn’t as though he hadn’t played the position before, in college he had been selected for the all-tournament team at third base; he dabbled at shortshop in high school but the majority of his baseball career had been behind the plate. The position was second nature to him in college but this was different, this was the big time and he didn’t want to fuck it up. He was a student of the game, always learning and doing what he could to better himself. Nothing was good enough in his mind. He pushed himself over the off season, learning all he could about the position he hadn’t played in nearly five years. He accomplished that and much more over that off season, his coach in the Dominican Republic had been shocked to learn Jason had primarily been a catcher prior.

He hadn’t expected his opportunity to come so quickly, first day of spring training and Jason was volunteering himself as a replacement third baseman to Scott Sizemore. He planned on casually mentioning it to Melvin that he had been down to the Dominican Republic in the offseason and played third hoping it would allow him to get in a few games at the position during spring training giving the team another option at third. But with seven short words he was volunteering himself as the everyday third baseman at the major league level.

Pressure was something he had always thrived on, same with the sheer will to be the best that he could be with any opportunity he was presented with. He wasn’t going to let this opportunity pass him by, he had prepared for this and he was going to prove to everyone he was a major league player regardless of the position he was at.

He took a deep breath and moved into position as the fielding drill started. It wasn’t his best effort at first, the rust and nerves distracted him from his ultimate goal but as the day wore on he could see the look of being impressed on his manger’s face as well as Mike Gallego’s. He could do this, he could achieve his dream.