Back in 2012, mired in the minor leagues for a third straight season, Brandon Moss was ready to start a life after baseball. He planned to become a firefighter.
Three years later, that job change is still very much on hold.
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This week at spring training, the Indians outfielder-first baseman retold the story of how close his playing career was to ending.
A close friend who was a firefighter with the Gwinnett County Fire Department in Moss’ Georgia hometown of Loganville had offered to help Moss land a job with the department.
“It was something I was really thinking about,” Moss told Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
Moss told Bastian he was only nine days away from playing out his contract in the A's minor league organization in June 2012. He planned to go to Japan and play out the season to earn some money before becoming a firefighter.
Then a funny thing happened — Oakland called Moss up to the big leagues. Good news? Hardly. Moss says he was mad.
“I was actually upset I got called up,” Moss told Bastian. “I just thought I was going to get a few at-bats and then be designated (for assignment) or something like that and lose that spot. I was like, 'This is just going to throw everything off.’”
The rest, of course, is history. Moss had a power surge the second half of 2012, with 21 homers in 265 at-bats. He added 30 more home runs for the Athletics in 2013.
In 2014, he slugged 25 home runs and earned his first MLB All-Star appearance. He finished with a stat line of .234/.334/.438.
The Indians landed him in a trade with Oakland in the offseason, and Moss believes that his power numbers will be even better now that he's away from pitcher-friendly O.co Coliseum, .
Moss, 31, had hip surgery in October, but he says he is ahead of schedule in his recovery and hopes to be in Cleveland's opening day lineup.