SAN JOSE >> Around this time last year, current San Jose Giants pitcher Elijah Pleasants took the mound for what he thought could be the final time in his career.

He was playing for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the Major League Baseball Draft League, a hybrid Collegiate Summer League and independent league. As he toed the rubber that day, he was flooded with emotion.

“I was really sad before the game because I knew it was my last official baseball game that I knew of,” Pleasants said. “I wasn’t going back to school for the first time, and I was just really upset.”

After being selected in the 36th round of the 2018 MLB draft out of Rossville High School in Clarksville, Tennessee, Pleasants opted against signing with the Kansas City Royals and honored his commitment to play for the University of Tennessee.

Pleasants’ collegiate career was up and down, and after exhausting his NCAA eligibility with Trevecca Nazarene University in 2023, he faced an uncertain baseball future.Pleasants moved back home, completed his degree, and began private pitching lessons, hoping a chance would come his way.

Now, he’s a bullpen fixture for San Jose, and his career has taken an entirely different trajectory — all thanks to an earlier stop on Interstate 880 in Oakland.

Not long after the calendar turned to 2024, an opportunity came in the form of new independent baseball team in the Pioneer League, the Oakland Ballers.

At that point, Pleasants was mainly focused on continuing to play — but with an eye toward the future.

“I wanted to get into affiliated ball … that was always my goal,” Pleasants said. “But at that point, it was just a new opportunity first, just to go pitch again. I knew I had a little more to show, and that I could show.”

That eye toward the future is a mindset shared by the Ballers organization, which billed itself as a premier destination for players looking to join affiliated baseball.

“We had a pretty good idea that we had the resources and the platform to create a pretty good opportunity (for players),” Ballers general manager Tyler Petersen said.

Tangibly, that looked like a coaching staff with myriad major league experience, leveraging Oakland’s location as a major market with a pre-established scouting network and using data packages put together by the team.

Still, the Ballers had to prove it. Petersen said it was a challenge to get some players to buy into the idea that a team that hadn’t played a game was the best spot for their development.

“We didn’t even have a ballpark, we had no history, we had nothing but a promise,” Petersen said. “You’ve got (other independent) ball teams that have been around for decades, other Pioneer teams that have been around for the last couple of years that have had success, so how do you sell a team that doesn’t exist?”

It wasn’t a hard sell for Pleasants, who said he was impressed with the Ballers’ presentations. He signed in late February, but his Ballers career would be brief.

He made five appearances, threw 16 2/3 innings, and struck out 23 while walking four. It was all the San Francisco Giants needed to see, and the Ballers announced Pleasants had signed with the organization on June 12.

Ballers manager Aaron Miles said it was clear that Pleasants, listed at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, had the physical traits to be successful.

“He’s a spectacular athlete,” Miles said. “He had some deficiencies in his game, and we worked on them. ... He just continued to get better and fill up the strike zone.”

After signing Pleasants to a minor league contract, the Giants assigned him to their Arizona Complex League affiliate on June 22. Four weeks later, he joined Single-A San Jose.

His pitching coach with San Jose is former San Francisco Giants reliever Dan Runzler. He described Pleasants’ arm as “elite” and wasn’t surprised that the right-hander found quick success.

On Tuesday, San Jose began its California League best-of-3 first-round playoff series with Modesto. Entering this week, Pleasants, in 17 games, was 2-2 with a 3.42 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 47 1/3 innings.

“Success will always come to guys with an arm like that,” Runzler said. “Coupled with his ability to throw strikes. He’ll continue to be more successful with his coachability and work ethic because stuff like that doesn’t just grow on trees.”

Pleasants was the third right-handed pitcher the Ballers helped get to affiliated baseball. Danny Kirwin signed with the Boston Red Sox in April, and the Chicago White Sox purchased the contract of Tyler Davis in June. More Ballers players could follow that same path after the team’s season concludes. The Pioneer League playoffs also started Tuesday, with the Ballers facing the Yolo High Wheelers in another best-of-3 first-round series.

The Ballers are doing exactly what they set out to do.

“We want to look for players that are the top-of-the-line players that maybe MLB just missed on,” Miles said. “There’s a reason why they’re in this league, and not in affiliated baseball, and we want to be able to help them get over the hump.”

For Pleasants, it’s been a whirlwind year. As he reflects on his journey, he’s grateful for his Pioneer League pit stop.

“I absolutely loved it,” he said of his time with the Ballers. “I was just focused on enjoying every day, and my teammates, and my coaches, and they made it really enjoyable.”

This offseason will be a little different for Pleasants. This time around, he knows his next step. He’s heading to Arizona to represent the Giants in the Arizona Fall League, where the organization hopes he’ll continue to grow.

“His development lies in more repetition, and the Arizona Fall League will be huge to continue that development,” Runzler said. “He’s going to grow with every at-bat against a pro hitter as he continues to understand his arsenal and how it plays.”

Pleasants said his rapid ascension hasn’t quite set in yet.

“Every day I still have to go out there and play again and really show that I belong here,” he said. “I think at the end of this season, when I finally really get to see my family again, I think that’s when it will really hit me.”