Dominic Scheffler (18) is fulfilling his big baseball dream

Dominic Scheffler (18) has achieved what no one before him has managed to do. As the first player trained in Switzerland, the Zurich native has signed a multi-year professional contract in the US Major League Baseball (MLB). The Cincinnati Reds announced the pitcher’s signing last week.

“I’ve been pursuing this goal for years,” says Scheffler to 20 minutes. “It is a dream that is now coming true.” But it’s not only a huge step in terms of sport, but also financially for the high school graduate. Scheffler does not want to talk about specific figures, but his annual salary should be in the mid six-digit range.

He has his grandparents to thank for making it this far. Scheffler, who was born in Zurich, spent his early childhood in Australia following a job offer from his father. It was there that he first came into contact with baseball. The family returned to Switzerland in 2011, and the subject of baseball was actually over for the then seven-year-old.

But his grandfather encouraged him to continue, searched the internet for a club and came across the Zurich Barracudas. “Without my grandparents I wouldn’t be where I am today,” says the 18-year-old. They drove him to training all the time and hardly missed a game. “They are my biggest fans.”

In addition to the support of his environment, talent and a lot of hard work, it took Scheffler a great deal of luck to make the leap to an MLB team. After an exchange year in Japan, he moved from the Zurich Barracudas to the Baseball Academy in Regensburg, Germany, in 2021. “In Switzerland there are no comparable structures in terms of professionalism,” says Scheffler.

To get the attention of US collegiate teams, the Academy regularly uploads highlight videos of its players to Twitter. “Apparently several trainers somehow came across my video and saw something in me,” says Scheffler. Several colleges immediately started courting the Swiss. Finally, some professional teams even sent their scouts to a training camp in Valencia to observe Scheffler more closely.

In the end, Scheffler had several offers on the table — from both collegiate and pro teams. He chose the direct path to MLB. “Hardly any player finishes college before joining a professional team. That would have been a costly and at the same time pointless detour,” Scheffler explains his motives. “In addition, Cincinnati’s offer was so lucrative financially that I could hardly turn it down.”

But it will probably be a few years before the pitcher actually makes his MLB premiere in front of tens of thousands of spectators. First of all, he will go to a training camp in the Dominican Republic in February, after which he will have his Matura final exams in Germany. Scheffler’s new job in Arizona will start in June.

There is a huge training complex there, where the newcomers to the league prepare for the professional league over several years and compete against each other in junior leagues. It should certainly take around four years before jumping into the MLB. That is a very ambitious goal, “but I have this claim to myself,” says Scheffler.