He’s 23 years old and living his dream.
A dream that he hopes will lead him to the major leagues.
For now, Jackson Loftin is beginning to make an impression playing for the Major League Baseball organization he grew up rooting for — the Houston Astros.
Jackson Loftin steals bases for the Woodpeckers
And having a lot of fun doing it.
“I couldn’t really ask for anything else — playing baseball and getting paid for it,” said the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Loftin, who has played four positions this season for the Class A Fayetteville Woodpeckers, mostly at shortstop until recently roaming center field. “It’s a dream come true. If the game goes well or it doesn’t go well, you’re still playing baseball for a living. You can’t really beat that.”
In just his second season of professional baseball, Loftin, who also has played third and second base this season, is a prime example of how the sport is changing.
In an era of towering home runs, launch angles and exit velocity, the art of base stealing had been an afterthought for several seasons.
But rule changes — including a pitching clock and a limit on how many times a pitcher can throw to first base — instituted in the minor leagues the past couple of years and in the majors this year have re-energized the running game.
And Loftin, who attended Klein Collins High School near Houston, has taken advantage, painting a very successful canvas.
Entering play on Friday, Loftin had stolen 43 of 45 bases in his sights this season, a 96% success rate. He set the Woodpeckers’ single-season stolen base record when he stole his 37th base on July 25 in a 3-2, 10-inning victory over the Down East Wood Ducks. He broke the franchise mark set by Myles Straw in 2017. Straw now plays outfield for the Cleveland Guardians.
“He ranks as the No. 1 stolen-base getter in the entire Houston Astros farm system, from IA, Double A, Triple A — all those guys who are right on the cusp of the big leagues,” said Woodpeckers radio broadcaster Andrew Chapman. “It’s not just the number of stolen bases that he’s had, but the success rate of those. He was one of, I think, five players in minor league baseball across the whole country that I think had not been caught with at least 25 steals before he finally got thrown out.”
Loftin is appreciative and humble about the record.
“It’s been very cool,” Loftin said. “Obviously, I broke Myles Straw’s (record), who’s a big leaguer, so that’s a cool deal to be able to do that and kind of have something to hang your hat on and recognize something that you’ve done over the year. That’s always nice.”
Student of the game
First-year Woodpeckers manager Ricky Rivera says Loftin is a student of the game.
“He takes the information that is given to him,” Rivera said. “Pregame, whether it’s our scouting meeting or advance analytics meeting or pregame video and stuff like that — he takes all that into the game. He’s also fearless, and obviously having speed doesn’t hurt.
“He pays attention to tendencies, he pays attention to timing; trusts in his gut, trusts his initial read. He watches the game a lot even when he’s not playing so he’s got a pretty good idea of what the pitcher is trying to do with the hitter and take a good pitch and go.”
For Loftin, it’s simple math once he reaches first base.
“The first base coach (Dylan Mazzo) does a nice job,” Loftin said. “He’s got the stopwatch over there, and he’s giving the specific times that (the pitcher) has from when he lifts his leg and the catcher catches it, so you kind of put that together with how good the catcher’s arm is and you’re kind of doing the math in your head that I know I can get there in this time.
“You’re kind of watching (the pitcher’s) timing and what he likes to do before he lifts his leg and what he likes to do before he kicks and just different stuff like that. It’s a lot of stuff that goes into that for me. It might look sometimes that we’re just going, but for me at least, I’m studying it before the game and during the game.”
Or, as Chapman puts it, “He has that scouting report in his head once he gets to the bases.”
Chapman added that the rule changes have provided a big boost to Loftin’s fortunes.
“The bigger bases that we have now and the pitch clock, I think, have taken some of the guesswork out of base running for runners,” Chapman said. “It used to be you had to be ready for a pickoff move three or four times in an at-bat. Now, a pitcher can only step off (the rubber) twice and each time he steps off, even the first time, it increases the likelihood that he’s going to the plate.
“So oftentimes, you see Loftin wait a pitch or two, take the first pickoff move and get back into the bag and almost immediately, he’s going. It’s helped his success rate exponentially.”
Loftin says he doesn’t pattern his play after any particular individual but takes bits and pieces of other players’ games and incorporates them into his own.
“I try to watch guys,” he said. “I just kind of take something from everybody and maybe compare yourself to them or see what they do that makes them successful and try to steal something from that.”
Hitting the mark
One thing Loftin hopes to improve on is his hitting.
Through games played on Thursday, Loftin was batting .203 and had scored 43 runs with 60 hits, including 12 doubles and five homers. He also had 33 walks and has been hit by a pitch nine times while striking out 75 times.
“Obviously, everyone wants to hit .300 and hit 20 home runs,” Loftin said. “I think, at least for us, it’s kind of a process. You kind of build things up over the season.
“You’ve got to take everything with a grain of salt, good or bad, and just know that it’s a process and you’re trying to get better throughout the year and not hit a plateau or have those highs and lows.”
As manager Rivera points out, Loftin was dealing with a broken nose during his first season with the Woodpeckers.
“I think he’s coming along as a hitter,” Rivera said. “In his first full professional year after an injury, he’s trying to control the zone, figure out his identity as a hitter and the do’s and don’ts. We’ve seen that batting average number fly up the last couple of months, and I don’t expect it to go down again.
“I think he brings a lot more to the table than just speed. He’s a guy that can defend three positions — four, now that he’s playing a lot of center field for us — and I would say his ability to handle the bat is showing the last month.”
Loftin showed his hitting potential in a recent four-game stint at the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, based in Sugar Land, Texas. When the Space Cowboys had some injuries and needed infield help, Loftin was promoted to Sugar Land on May 31 and returned to Fayetteville on June 6.
At Sugar Land, Loftin went 5-for-13 with three doubles, two RBI and four walks.
“I was back in Texas where I’m from, so that was really cool,” Loftin said. “My family got to come out, and some of them were there for the first time watching me play pro. And I played well, so that was really fun.
“It’s cool to be able to go somewhere where it’s a step up from the competition you’re playing against.”
Loftin also showed he could hit in college, playing one year at Oral Roberts as a redshirt junior, where he batted .349 with 10 homers, 54 RBI and 25 stolen bases while being a 2022 All-Summit League first-team selection. He played three seasons at Sam Houston State before his Oral Roberts stint.
Value in versatility
“He’s a guy that you can plug in wherever you want to (in the lineup),” Rivera said. “He has those leader qualities where he’s a guy that can lead, that can punch everybody up or take them with him up, down just because of his work ethic, because of how consistent he is in his body language and what he does on a day-to-day basis. I’m just really happy that he’s had the success he’s had in the last couple of months.”
Versatility is the word used to describe Loftin on the baseball field.
“At this level, it’s valuable,” Chapman said. “This level of minor league baseball is very experimental. They put guys all over the diamond. Loftin allows for that lineup flexibility that managers really like.”
Loftin’s dream job started when he was drafted in the 13th round (403 overall) in the 2022 MLB Draft by the Astros.
“Growing up, I went to a bunch of Astros games, had season tickets until I was 7 or 8 and went to several games over the years (at Minute Maid Park),” Loftin said. “I wasn’t really expected to be drafted going into the draft, and then the morning of the draft my agent called me and said he thought it was going to be the Astros in the 13th round.
“Hearing my name called by the Astros, that was pretty exciting.”
He’s gotten a taste of Triple-A baseball, but he’s content to stay in Fayetteville if he doesn’t get a late-season call-up.
“I would love to go up, but if it doesn’t happen then I stay here and play baseball,” Loftin said. “You couldn’t ask for more. That’s why we’re all here, to try to get to the next level. The way to do that is to just get better every day and impress people.”
Loftin has enjoyed his time in Fayetteville, starting with the last 23 games of the 2022 season and most of this one. The Woodpeckers have a 45-54 record this season with 35 games left for the year, which concludes with a home game against the Charleston RiverDogs on Sept. 10.
“The fans here are great, and the town’s great,” he said. “You get a good crowd out here a lot of times, so that’s always fun to get to play in front of a great group of people.”
And the feeling is mutual with the fans, Chapman said.
“He’s just a real personable athlete who’s great with our fans, has always been willing to take some time postgame to sign autographs or take some photos,” Chapman said. “He’s a player that just with his success this year and the records he has achieved has become one of the favorites that we’ve had over the four-year span (in Fayetteville) of the organization so far.”