The arrival in the big leagues of rookie utility player Jake Cronenworth has solidified the Padres infield, added versatility to one of 2020’s livelier clubs and made an offseason trade with Tampa Bay look lopsided. In the season’s first month, Cronenworth has also acted as a boon for business at a hot dog stand in Chicago called Lola’s.

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On days when Cronenworth starts for the Padres, his college teammate Donnie Eaton drives 30 minutes from his apartment to the stand in Humboldt Park, where he orders a pair of Coney dogs. Back home, he’ll boot up MLB.TV, open the Styrofoam container and snap a picture of the monstrosities slathered in meat sauce, cheese and onions. He has devised a hashtag that is both memorable and mellifluous: #ConeysForCroney. Cronenworth is playing so often that friends have begun to inquire about Eaton’s health.

“My cholesterol is probably through the roof,” Eaton said. “But it’s only a 60-game season. You have to go for it, right?”

Cronenworth maintained that he has not asked Eaton to perform this ritual. Then again, he has long been something of a prisoner to the endless possibilities for sobriquets and puns related to his name. His fan club is, of course, the Cronies. A fan in single-A once razzed him as “Cronenworth-less.” At the plate, he was dubbed “Rake Cronenworth” by the Padres social media team. In the field, he makes base hits disappear into “The Crone Zone.”

“It’s kinda gone crazy on Twitter this year,” Cronenworth chuckled over the phone on Saturday afternoon.

For the Padres, a team with a chance to reach the expanded playoffs and end a 13-season postseason drought, only shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr., pitcher Dinelson Lamet and outfielder Trent Grisham have been more valuable this season than Cronenworth, according to Baseball-Reference’s version of WAR heading into Sunday’s games. Tatis is the franchise’s star attraction. To build around him last winter, general manager A.J. Preller acquired outfielder Tommy Pham from the Rays to deepen a lineup that included high-priced veterans Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer.

As part of the deal, the Padres also netted Cronenworth, a 26-year-old infielder who had experimented in Triple A as a two-way player. When the novel coronavirus shortened the 2020 season, Cronenworth put any pitching plans on hold. His performance this season might end them entirely. Cronenworth finished Sunday’s series against the Diamondbacks with a .950 OPS through 17 games, while displaying solid range at three different positions.

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Like rookies throughout the sport, Cronenworth has been unable to celebrate his ascension with family and friends. Barred from attending games in person, those who knew him well at the University of Michigan are still “living vicariously through him,” said John DiLaura, who played with Cronenworth in 2013.

“He’s always been, not necessarily overlooked, but from a tools standpoint, nothing’s above and beyond,” DiLaura said. “But he’s just a really good player who works his tail off.”

Cronenworth grew up in St. Clair, a city on the border of eastern Michigan and Canada. He wasn’t drafted out of high school. He did not exactly cut an intimidating figure; Michigan listed him at 167 pounds as a freshman. He was quiet and kept to himself. His farmer’s tan was so pronounced that a senior dubbed him “The Human Whiteboard.” But the slender, reddish-haired kid could hit. And he knew it. He exuded the sort of confidence that confounded opponents, teammates said.

“They’re kind of like, ‘Who is this skinny little guy hitting third? Why (is he acting) like he’s the biggest, baddest dude on Earth?’” said Wolverines pitcher James Bourque, who made the majors last season with the Nationals.

On the road as a freshman, Cronenworth roomed with DiLaura. Cronenworth trawled YouTube for video of opposing pitchers — “even guys we weren’t playing,” DiLaura said — and disappeared into his laptop. “Here I am as a senior thinking I know a decent amount about the conference and the players,” DiLaura said. “I’m basically getting taken to school by a freshman, because literally that’s all he did. He was just a baseball rat.” 

Cronenworth caught the attention of scouts that spring. In an exhibition against the Mets, he used a wood bat to triple off big-leaguer Dillon Gee. He hit .320 for the season. He was disciplined and resourceful, capable of spoiling pitches and extending at-bats. Late in the year, he drew the eye of Rays scout James Bonnici, who was in the stands at the Big Ten tournament, where the main attraction was a sophomore slugger from Indiana University named Kyle Schwarber.

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Bonnici believed Cronenworth was “pound-for-pound as good a hitter as Kyle,” he said. “Now maybe not as much power. But he just had such a good, fluid stroke that it was easy to see, I thought, that this kid was going to be able to hit at the next level.”

He also had a chance to pitch. Some scouts preferred Cronenworth on the mound. His fastball velocity registered in the mid-90s, and he had a useful splitter. He struck out more than a batter per inning in his college career, often spending eight innings in the field before closing the ninth.

Away from the field, Cronenworth started to come out of his shell. He and Eaton spent hours quoting the 1977 classic “Slap Shot.” They would affect Canadian accents and ask Wolverines coach Erik Bakich, a hockey neophyte, about “putting on the foil” before a game like the Hanson Brothers.

On a bus trip through San Jose, Cronenworth and Eaton traded quips about the San Jose Sharks arena, known as The Shark Tank, which eventually led to Eaton screaming from the bench as Cronenworth hit: “Croney, reach your hand into the tank and grab yourself a shark!” Because Cronenworth homered after one of these exhortations, the laws of the sport dictated Eaton needed to use it often.

Cronenworth and his teammates often piled into someone’s car and trekked to the neighboring city of Ypsilanti, the home of a hot-dog emporium called Bill’s Drive-In. They went frequently enough that it became a joke: “We going to Bill’s before the game?” Cronenworth estimated he could put away “six or seven chili dogs.”

“You’d go there and you’d be so excited,” he said. “But you weren’t excited afterward.”

If he was aiming to bulk up, he was unsuccessful. As a junior, Cronenworth still carried his weight on a slight frame. He homered just eight times in three college seasons. Scouts saw a future for him in professional baseball but were divided on where he might play.

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On the second day of the 2015 draft, Bonnici got a call from Rays scouting director R.J. Harrison. Harrison wanted to know if Cronenworth would sign in the seventh round for the recommend slot amount. Bonnici connected with Cronenworth and let him know the Rays wanted to take him. Cronenworth had a question: What position did they see him as? An infielder, Bonnici told him. That appealed to Cronenworth. He agreed on the spot.

“Our development guys out-scouted us,” Bonnici said. “Because they started moving him around all over. And he turned out for us to be a really good shortstop.”

Cronenworth climbed the minor-league rungs until he stalled at Double A in 2018. He opened the season with an 0-for-28 slump. At the end of April, he was hitting .095 and slugging .127. This was his second stint with the Montgomery Biscuits. He was 24 and had never cracked a top-100 prospect list. He was entering the sort of spiral that ends careers.

To revive himself, Cronenworth tried to stop thinking about baseball. He quit taking batting practice. He switched from his Louisville Slugger to an Axe bat, the model popularized by Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts. The unfamiliarity of the equipment obscured any mechanical worries floating through his head. “I started using it because it felt weird, and it took my mind off hitting,” he said. His power increased. His bat speed accelerated. He posted a .288/.346/.385 line in the final two months.

The next spring, Rays executive Chaim Bloom approached Cronenworth about trying to be a two-way player again. Cronenworth jumped at the chance, because “I was just trying to find a way to stick out, maybe get my foot in the door, somehow, some way.” He struggled with his command in seven appearances, but still showed a proclivity for strikeouts. He may not have needed the added dimension to reach the majors: Cronenworth won the International League batting title and finished with a career-best .949 OPS in Triple A.

His output did not merit a promotion from Tampa Bay. But it did make him more enticing to a team like the Padres.

“It was tough,” Cronenworth said. “It was frustrating . . . You know, it is what it is. I’ve got a great opportunity here in San Diego.”

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When COVID-19 shut down baseball in March, Cronenworth had to choose between staying at the team’s complex outside Phoenix, returning to his offseason home in Chicago or traveling to San Diego. Cronenworth opted for San Diego. During the ensuing weeks, he drilled at all four infield positions. He impressed infield coach Bobby Dickerson with his aptitude at first base, a position Cronenworth had not played much since college.

Cronenworth’s versatility got him onto the Opening Day roster. His work during the shutdown convinced the Padres to hand him the reins at first when Hosmer dealt with a case of gastritis, and he hit well enough to stay in the lineup after Hosmer returned, mostly playing second base. He spelled Tatis at shortstop on Saturday.

The Padres are unlikely to supplant the Dodgers atop the National League West. But they have enough talent to make the summer-long sprint interesting. Cronenworth looks like he’ll be part of that journey.

Which means Donnie Eaton will have to make more journeys of his own to get Coneys.

“It’s no Bill’s, I’ll tell you that much,” Eaton said. “But it does the job.”

(Top photo: Kyusung Gong / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

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