Samuel Nicholas Huff (born January 14, 1998) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

for the Texas Rangers of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2020.

Amateur career

Huff attended Arcadia High School in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. He was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the seventh round, with the 219th overall selection, of the

2016 Major League Baseball draft The 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 9, 2016, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order is the reverse order of the 2015 MLB season standings. In addition, compensation picks will be d ...

. He signed with the Rangers for a $225,000

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

, forgoing a commitment to

Grand Canyon University Grand Canyon University (GCU) is a private for-profit Christian university in Phoenix, Arizona. Based on student enrollment, Grand Canyon University was the largest Christian university in the world in 2018, with 20,000 attending students on ...

Professional career

Huff spent his first two professional seasons with the

Arizona League Rangers The Arizona Complex League Rangers are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Texas Rangers, competing in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Arizona. The team is compose ...

of the Rookie-level

Arizona League The Arizona Complex League (ACL) is a rookie-level Minor League Baseball league that operates in and around Phoenix, Arizona, since 1988. Prior to 2021, it was known as the Arizona League (AZL). Along with the Florida Complex League (FCL), it f ...

, hitting .330/.436/.485/.921 with 1 home run and 17 RBI in 2016, and .249/.329/.452/.781 with 9 home runs and 31 RBI in 2017. He played the 2018 season with the

Hickory Crawdads The Hickory Crawdads are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League (SAL) and the High-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Hickory, North Carolina, and play their home games at L. P. Frans Stadium, which opened i ...

of the Class A

South Atlantic League The South Atlantic League, often informally called the Sally League, is a Minor League Baseball league with teams predominantly in states along the Atlantic coast of the United States from New York to Georgia. A Class A league for most of its ...

, hitting .241/.292/.439/.731 with 18 home runs and 55 RBI. He opened 2019 back with Hickory, hitting .333/.368/.796/1.164 with 15 home runs and 29 RBI over 30 games. He was promoted to the

Down East Wood Ducks The Down East Wood Ducks are a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League and the owned-and-operated Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. They are located in Kinston, North Carolina, and are named for the wood duck, a local colorful wa ...

of the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Carolina League The Carolina League is a Minor League Baseball league which has operated along the Atlantic Coast of the United States since 1945. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 unti ...

on May 9. Huff was named to the 2019

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League ...

. Huff hit a two-run home run off of

Ben Bowden Benjamin Douglas Bowden (born October 21, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies organization. He played college baseball for Vanderbilt University. The Colorado Rockies selected Bowden in the second roun ...

in the seventh inning to tie the game, and was awarded the 2019 Futures Game

Larry Doby Lawrence Eugene Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003) was an American professional baseball player in the Negro leagues and Major League Baseball (MLB) who was the second black player to break baseball's color barrier and the first black pl ...

Most Valuable Player award. Huff has named a 2019

Year-End All-Star. Huff produced a .262/.326/.425/.751 slash line with 13 home runs and 43 RBI for Down East. On September 10, 2020, the Rangers selected Huff's contract and promoted him to the major leagues. He made his major league debut the next day against the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

. In 10 games for Texas in 2020, Huff hit .355/.394/.742/1.136 with 3 home runs and 4 RBI. On April 23, 2021, it was announced that Huff would undergo surgery on April 28 to remove a "loose body" from his right knee, requiring eight weeks of recovery. On May 4, Huff was placed on the 60-day injured list as he recovered from the surgery. On July 17, Huff was activated off of the injured list. Huff played 46 games in Double-A with the Frisco RoughRiders prior to being promoted to Triple-A Round Rock on September 23, 2021. In Frisco he hit an average of .237 with 10 home runs and 23 runs batted in. Following the 2021 season, Huff played for the

Surprise Saguaros The Surprise Saguaros are a baseball team that plays in the West Division of the Arizona Fall League. They play their home games in Surprise, Arizona, at Surprise Stadium. The ballpark is also the spring training facility of the Kansas City Royal ...

of the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fill ...

. Huff split the 2022 season between Texas and Round Rock. With Texas, he hit 240/.303/.372/.675 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI over 44 games; with Round Rock, Huff hit .260/.336/.533/.868 with 21 home runs and 50 RBI over 63 games played. Huff was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock to begin the 2023 season.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huff, Sam 1998 births Living people Baseball players from Phoenix, Arizona Major League Baseball catchers Texas Rangers players Arizona League Rangers players Arizona Complex League Rangers players Hickory Crawdads players Down East Wood Ducks players Frisco RoughRiders players Round Rock Express players Surprise Saguaros players