Nevada Professional Athletes

Sometimes the best answer to being expendable is a ninth-inning home run.

TJ Friedl, the Nevada-Reno outfielder who spent the better part of this past week in roster limbo, delivered exactly that — a clutch pinch-hit blast in the ninth inning that helped the Cincinnati Reds outlast the Chicago Cubs 10-8. The Wolf Pack alum went 1-for-1 with a homer, an RBI, and a run scored on Friday, Aug. 28, capping a remarkable turnaround from a player who had been left unclaimed on the waiver wire just days earlier.

From Waiver Wire to Walk-Off Hero

The backstory makes the moment hit harder. Cincinnati had placed Friedl on outright waivers earlier in the week alongside designated hitter/third baseman Eugenio Suárez in what amounted to a roster and payroll reshuffling. The move drew scrutiny — FanSided argued it was evidence that GM Nick Krall was mismanaging the franchise — but no team bit. Friedl and Suárez cleared waivers and rejoined the club in Chicago, earning back their roster spots by default.

What Friedl did with the second chance was anything but default. After going hitless in a pair of games against the Giants on Aug. 26, he showed up at Wrigley Field and delivered when it mattered most. The pinch-hit homer off a Cubs reliever was exactly the kind of high-leverage contribution that makes it harder for a front office to justify another waiver attempt. His average sits at .167 on the season — thin, by any measure — but in baseball, timing is everything, and Friedl's timing on Friday was impeccable.

He followed it up on Saturday, going 2-for-however-many against the Cubs to further pad his case for sticking on the active roster through the final stretch of the season.

Morris Battles but Struggles in Minnesota

Elsewhere in the Nevada alumni landscape, Athletics pitcher Kade Morris had a rougher week. Called on for relief duty against the Twins on Aug. 25, Morris worked 2.2 innings but surrendered two earned runs, finishing the outing with an ERA that ballooned to 10.66. Oakland dropped that game 2-9. Morris, still finding his footing at the big-league level, will need to tighten up his command as the A's close out what has been a rebuilding campaign.

The Rest of the Pack

The other Wolf Pack representatives — Blane Abeyta (Braves), Trenton Brooks (Padres), J.R. Freethy (Blue Jays), Miles Mastrobuoni (Mariners), and JoJo Romero (Brewers) — did not generate notable statistical activity during the week's reporting window.

For Nevada fans, though, Friedl's story is the one worth savoring. He was available for any team in baseball to claim, nobody wanted him, and he responded by hitting a go-ahead homer in the ninth. That's not a stat line. That's a statement.

TJ Friedl's Players' Weekend Tradition Makes the Front Page

Nevada doesn't always get a column in the national sports conversation, but this week, the Wolf Pack earned one — courtesy of The New York Times.

Reds center fielder TJ Friedl is the subject of a feature by the Times this week, spotlighting how the Reno product has turned MLB Players' Weekend into a personal annual tradition. The piece puts Nevada athletics in rare company, drawing a national readership's attention to a program not typically mentioned alongside the traditional baseball powerhouses.

Friedl, who played at Nevada before signing with Cincinnati, has made Players' Weekend — MLB's annual celebration of personality and player expression — something of a recurring showcase for his Wolf Pack roots. The Times feature frames it as a labor of love, the kind of story that resonates beyond the box score: a player using one of the sport's most visible stages to represent where he came from.

It's a meaningful platform, particularly for a mid-major program like Nevada. Players' Weekend is one of the few moments in the MLB calendar when a player's college affiliation can travel as far as their stats do.

On the field this week, Friedl's numbers have been modest. He logged a hit Saturday against the Diamondbacks and carried a .160 batting average through a stretch that included series against the Marlins, Cardinals, and Arizona. The Reds' results for several of those contests weren't made available, but Friedl appeared in each game of the week's run, holding his place atop the Cincinnati outfield.

The Rest of the Pack

Friedl isn't the only Nevada alum active in the big leagues. Six other Wolf Pack products are on MLB rosters this season, a quiet testament to a program that consistently produces professional talent without the recruiting fanfare of larger programs.

Trenton Brooks (Padres, LF), J.R. Freethy (Blue Jays, 2B), and Miles Mastrobuoni (Mariners, 3B) are all holding roster spots in the field. On the mound, Blane Abeyta (Braves), Kade Morris (Athletics), and JoJo Romero (Brewers) represent Nevada's pitching pipeline.

None generated significant headlines this week beyond Friedl, but the sheer volume — seven alumni on active rosters across both leagues — underscores Nevada's standing as a legitimate pro-development program.

The Bigger Picture

What the Times feature really does is give Nevada a narrative moment, not just a statistical one. Friedl's Players' Weekend tradition isn't a story about wins or ERA — it's about identity, loyalty, and what a player carries with him from college to the pros. For Wolf Pack fans, that's the kind of coverage that doesn't show up in the standings but lingers longer than most game recaps.

For a program in Reno competing for attention in a crowded national landscape, TJ Friedl just did something no box score could: he made Nevada impossible to ignore for a week.