Taking the unusual path from Slovakia to Ireland to Vauxhall, Alberta, Blue Jays prospect Adam Macko has embarked on one of the more unique routes into professional baseball. Originally drafted in the seventh round of the 2019 draft by the Seattle Mariners, the left-handed pitcher found himself in the Blue Jays organization after being included in the Teoscar Hernandez deal two winters ago.

After spending the 2023 campaign with high-A Vancouver, Macko pitched most of his games in double-A New Hampshire in 2024, getting a late season call up to triple-A at season’s end. Through 16 New Hampshire starts, the 6-foot starter engineered a 4.87 ERA and 1.22 WHIP, striking out 90 batters in 81 1/3 innings pitched while missing roughly two months due to injury.

Baseball is not typically a sport that is valued very highly in Europe, especially not in the landlocked central European country of Slovakia. Macko spent his first twelve years in the nation’s capital of Bratislava, where he was introduced to the sport at school.

“It was fun to hit some balls around,” said Macko, speaking to Blue Jays Nation. “We didn’t even have real baseballs, it was these small plastic balls that we were hitting off a tee with plastic bats I’m pretty sure. And, I don’t even know what gloves we had. I probably had a righty glove or something like that. It was just fun to play around with friends.”

It wasn’t long until Macko’s talent was noticed by one of the few competitive team coaches.

“I remember I was playing catch with the coach. There was a B team and an A team, and I was on the B team. She was like ‘Would you be interested in going to the A team?’ and I wasn’t even thinking about how I could potentially be moving up but when she said that, I was like ‘Yeah, I would be interested’. And then once I saw the older kids there and playing, that’s when I started to want to get better. And, it just took off from there.”

Macko’s family moved to Ireland when he was 13, where he continued to play baseball, albeit at a similar competition level to what he experienced in Slovakia. After a year and a half, they relocated once again to Alberta where his goals for the sport began to take shape.

“By the time we left Ireland, I was looking at Justin Verlander’s YouTube videos and learning how to pitch like him. And I wanted to be in the MLB. I was like, well, I want to be in the Major Leagues”. Macko explained. “Right around that time when I discovered Justin Verlander, and once I got to Vauxhall, I remember writing out goals that coach Les McTavish asked us to consider when looking towards our future. And, a lot of the kids were like, ‘play college baseball’, ‘play professional baseball’, stuff like that. And I was like, am I weird for thinking this? But my goal was that I wanted to be in the Hall of Fame.”

After a successful high school career at Vauxhall Academy, the Mariners selected Macko in the 2019 MLB Draft. After dealing with the shut-down COVID-19 campaign Macko reached high-A and pitched in the Arizona Fall League, he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2022/2023 offseason.

“I know now that a lot of people will go to the fall league and then get traded afterwards. There’s a lot of teams looking at you and stuff like that. But, that never really came to my mind. So it really kind of came out of left field for me.”

It didn’t take long for Macko to warm up to his new organization, especially given the possibility of playing for the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball.

“From day one, when I met the staff there in Dunedin and, toured the facility and all that, I knew it was going to be a lot of fun,” Macko said. “This is going to be a great place. And it is, and I love it. But being in Canada and representing a whole country is something that not a lot of people get to experience. So if I get the chance to do that, that would be one of my dreams coming true.”

Having spent time in high-A in the Mariners organization in 2022, Macko had hopes of jumping up to double-A in short order in 2023. When he was placed in high-A Vancouver to start the year, he wanted to quickly show that he was deserving of a call-up. However, he ended up spending the entire season in Vancouver, winning a Northwest League Championship while posting a 4.81 ERA and 1.35 WHIP on the season.

“I was kind of bummed out for a little bit and I think it showed in my performance as well,” Macko explains. “I was trying to prove that I am going to force you to move me up to double-A. I think that mindset hindered me a little bit, but once I just embraced where I was and the goals the Jays had for me, also considering I was living at home and playing baseball, it sunk in that this is what I’ve been wanting to do since I started pro ball. Getting to do it on a team that’s of the calibre that we had and with the people that we had was something spectacular. So I really want to sit back and enjoy the ride and the process.”

The now 23-year-old spent the majority of the 2024 season with double-A New Hampshire, improving as a pitcher as he faced a tougher challenge.

“I had more innings than I did the year before. I was at a higher level and performed better in a lot of aspects, and in a lot of categories, so I’m very grateful for that. I took double-A as kind of like, you know, this is the real test.”

Although his ERA remained in a similar spot as the year before, Macko set new career bests for innings pitched (93 1/3), WHIP (1.21), H/9 (7.5) and BB/9 (3.4). His improved command was on display at a new level, which benefitted him, especially considering that he maintained his swing-and-miss stuff (10.1 K/9).

Advancing minor league levels is sure to represent new challenges for any pitcher, with Macko being no exception. Primarily lauded for his curveball since being drafted, the lefty mixed in another pitch more frequently in 2024.

“I did have to take off a little bit of my fastball usage and rely on that cutter, which metrically is my worst pitch, but I would say it’s my most useful pitch,” Macko said. “It helps that it is a little bit slow for a cutter. It’s more like a slider, but I got such a good feel for that over the year. I was just able to throw that in whenever I wanted to if it was a 2-0 or 3-0 count or whatever the situation, that pitch sometimes became my more reliable pitch than my fastball for a strike. I think it felt like a get-out-of-jail-free card. I’m in trouble, 2-0? Okay, no problem. Just throw two cutters in there, get back to 2-2, and then get back to pitching.”

Of course, Macko still has the curveball that had scouts salivating while coming out of high school. However, he has two different versions of the pitch that he throws in different situations.

“There’s two ways in which I use the curveball. I’ll throw it a lot slower than I normally would early in the count, just to almost allow the hitter to see that a curveball is coming. Cause a lot of the time in early counts, if they see spin, they’ll sit on it and they’ll take their chances if it’s a ball. And if it’s a strike, they’re okay with it. They don’t want to swing early on too much junk. So I’ve used it to just get me over to steal a strike. Then with two strikes, that’s definitely when throw it as hard as I can and try to strike them out. And that’s one of my favourite pitches to throw.”

The Blue Jays added Macko to their 40-man roster last year to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Although likely ticketed to start 2025 in triple-A Buffalo, he is nonetheless eagerly awaiting his opportunity to compete in big league Spring Training come March. Whenever his time comes to pitch at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Macko will be ready for his moment.

“I think there is a chance if I play well that I will get to the big leagues at one point or another,” said the left-hander. “I’m planning on doing well and I have some big goals for the upcoming year.”

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