The Road Not Taken: Spencer Bivens’s unlikely path to the Show

BOALSBURG (WTAJ) — The road to Major League Baseball was anything but easy for Boalsburg native Spencer Bivens, who on June 16th finally made his major league debut as a 29-year-old, undrafted pitcher who was playing for his 16th team since graduating from State College high school.

“I learned a lot in [independent] ball. I learned a lot along the way that helped me be prepared for this moment and I don’t know if I debut at like 25 [years-old] in like the traditional route if I’m as ready as I feel like I am right now.”

Bivens graduated from State College High School in 2012. His path started off pretty normal. Spencer pitched two seasons at Louisburg College in North Carolina, a junior college that’s turned out MLB pros like first-round picks Brian Holton and Otis Nixon, as well as current Baltimore Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins.

But that’s where the normal ended.

After junior college, Spencer walked onto the Penn State team but was cut when he failed a drug test. It was a dark moment for him.

“That rivals, my wanting to play pro baseball, like I always wanted to play a sport at Penn State,” Bivens said.

“That was very hard as a mother to try to console him and say, you know, if things will get better,” His mom Caran Aikens said. “I mean, how do you how do you even do that?”

That failed drug test set off a long and windy road for Spencer, one so uncertain Robert Frost couldn’t have imagined it. He’d transfer to Rogers State University in Oklahoma to finish his eligibility, traveling home between seasons to work on his degree at Penn State. (He’d eventually graduate in 2020.)

After college, Spencer went undrafted and traveled to France to play baseball. In 2020 he was supposed to play in the Czech Republic, a trip that was canceled because of the global pandemic. He’d play in local leagues akin to pick-up leagues, and more organized ones like the Frontier League with the Washington Power, and the Atlantic League with the then-called West Virginia Power.

Eventually, in 2022 he signed with the San Francisco Giants’ organization and made his minor league debut on May 19 with the San Jose Giants. Spencer’s long semi-pro career finally graduated. He was a professional player.

“I called him and he he just burst into tears,” his mom Caran remembers. “And I was so excited. And he told me what had happened that the Giants had called him.”

“My first couple of games in San Jose were pretty cool,” Spencer recalled. “Like just being real professional baseball for the first time. And then the games in Richmond were really special because my dad had never seen me play before and he traveled up from Virginia Beach and he came to a lot of games.”

If Spencer’s long windy road was a marathon, the past three seasons have been a sprint. He’s been promoted from single-A to the majors in 85 games. In June, he was promoted from triple-A Sacramento to San Francisco. With the Giants, Spencer recorded a 2-1 record in seven games, posting a 2.65 earned-run-average before being optioned back to the minors.

In his only start, he faced the Dodgers where he made a career highlight by striking out Los Angeles slugger Shohei Ohtani, twice.

“I’ve watched Shohei play, and then I’m standing on the mound against him. It was surreal because like, this is the moment I’ve been waiting for my whole life and to be able to execute my game plan in it, you know, he saw my emotion. It’s it was like ten years worth of it,” Bivens said.

Spencer’s strong fist-pump as he’s spun off the mound will be a memory he, nor his mom will soon forget.

“He had texted me and I was a little nervous, but I knew he could do it,” Caran said.

On July 6, the Giants optioned Spencer back to triple-A as pitchers Kyle Harrison and Blake Snell returned from injuries. He now waits for another opportunity to prove he belongs.

“I know the game is getting younger, but I want to challenge our organization and any organization that I can compete, I can compete at a high level. And I know I can play for a while.”

It took 12 years, 16 teams, and three countries Spencer Bivens from Happy Valley, to Oracle Park. Did I forget to mention the off season he played in Mexico? But today he looks back at this journey very differently. That failed drug test served as a blessing in disguise, those small leagues and independent leagues taught lessons about life and baseball.

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“I’m so proud of him for setting his sights on what he knew he could do and making it happen,” Caran said. “Through every possible means necessary, with setbacks.”

“Maybe that’s how it was supposed to happen for me,” Bivens said. “I never had the easy [path.] Division one offers right out of high school, being a highly recruited prospect, like that was never who I was. So I think I always had to go the hard route.”

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