From the minors to the Major Leagues: The Nathan Lukes backstory

Lukes’s journey to the big leagues has been preceded by many more successes in high school and college. The Sacramento, California native attended Center High School, where he played shortstop and pitched as a starter and reliever. He concluded his high school career with an impressive senior season, hitting .450 across 28 games with four homers, 26 RBIs, seven doubles, and only three strikeouts. He also posted a 5-0 record over 10 games as a pitcher with a 0.62 ERA, four complete games, one shutout, and one save.

Growing up in California, he would later attend California State University in Sacramento (also known as Sacramento State) for his collegiate years, the same school that Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins, Dodgers outfielder James Outman, and current Blue Jays colour commentator Buck Martinez attended. During his three-year stint with the Hornets, Lukes exhibited similar characteristics there like he did in high school: durability and low strikeouts at the plate.

He would end up peppering his name across the record books, leaving the school as the all-time hits leader (244). Unfortunately, that record would be broken by Matt Smith in 2021, but Lukes still has sole possession of second place. Lukes also finished his college career with two All-Western Athletic Conference First Team honours.

Lukes was drafted in the seventh round of the 2015 MLB Draft by the then-Cleveland Indians. He was selected in the same round as current Mariners utilityman Dylan Moore, Padres infielder Jake Cronenworth, and Brewers pitcher Trevor Megill. Despite drafting 41 players in 2015, Lukes is only one of eight players from Cleveland’s draft class that year to make it to the major leagues.

After a short five-game stint with Cleveland’s low-A affiliate to conclude the 2015 season, Lukes was assigned to single-A Lake County to begin the 2016 campaign. Through 89 games there, Lukes hit .301/.375/.453 with an .829 OPS with five homers, 32 RBIs, and eight triples. Those figures earned him a promotion to high-A Lynchburg, but his time there would be short lived as he was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays as part of a trade package that sent outfielder Brandon Guyer to Cleveland.

Lukes spent the end of that season and the beginning of 2017 in high-A Charlotte, but he was ready for the next step pretty quickly. Lukes was promoted to double-A Montgomery in mid-April, and he finished the season with 97 hits in 98 games there, leading him to be named a Southern League Mid-Season All-Star. He would play the entire 2018 season in Montgomery, hitting .278 with a .731 in 115 games.

The Rays started Lukes in triple-A Durham to kick off the 2019 season, beginning a 287-game stretch of triple-A games for his career. He struggled in ’19, having only one month where he hit over .240, something quite abnormal at that point in his minor league career. However, after not having a minor league season in 2020, he had arguably his best pro campaign in 2021.

That year, Lukes slashed .303/.352/.456 with an .808 OPS, four homers, 44 RBIs, and 31 doubles. Amongst a stacked triple-A East League, Lukes led the league in doubles and finished 17th in batting average. It was the best way for him to enter free agency, and the Blue Jays would sign him to a minor league deal with a spring training invite that winter.

Lukes started out on the right foot with the Blue Jays organization, hitting .400 in 14 spring training games and putting together a similar regular season to the one he had just a year prior. In 111 games with Buffalo in 2022, Lukes amassed a .285/.364/.425 slash line with 11 home runs, 61 RBIs, 25 doubles, and 20 stolen bases. Although his strikeout numbers were up, his handedness, batting average, and defensive flexibility in the outfield, mixed with his work on the base paths, put him on Toronto’s radar. Enough so that the Jays put Lukes on the 40-man roster, which kept him on the team.

He had another solid spring for the Blue Jays in 2023, but instead of seeing another minor league assignment, Toronto elected to add him to the Opening Day roster. He would pinch run for Brandon Belt on Opening Day in the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals, coming around to score on an RBI single from Matt Chapman just moments later.

Lukes didn’t remain on the major league roster long, and he accumulated only 51 games with the Blue Jays between 2023 and 2024 (a thumb injury last season kept him on the shelf for some time). However, his appearances in the latter season served as an ideal audition for the pending 2025 campaign in which outfield roster spots were up for grabs. Lukes had 23 hits in 22 games to conclude the ’24 season, including hitting his first major league home run against the Marlins on September 28th.

Of course, the minor league journey that I detailed above is only what we can see on the surface. The hours in the batting cages and the years going by of inching up the minor league ranks (amongst many others) are things that Lukes can look back on now as all part of the journey. Now, people know the name, and they know to pronounce it as “Lucas” instead of the plural form of “Luke”.