After 590 minor-league games, Blaine Crim made his Major League debut on Friday night. The former St. Paul’s Episcopal standout started at first base in the Texas Rangers’ 13-1 loss to the Seattle Mariners in an American League game at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

Even though Crim had a .313 batting average, .565 slugging percentage, seven home runs and 25 RBIs in 28 games for the Triple-A Round Rock Express this season, Crim called his callup “unexpected, for sure.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” Crim said about reaching the big leagues in the Rangers’ locker room on Friday. “That was my first thought. …

“I always thought it would be a really cool story, and I always thought it would be really cool to say. I don’t know if I ever truly believed it. I really don’t. I know my family and my wife did, for sure. I can’t say I necessarily did. But I’m confident in myself. I feel like I can do it. It’s just I never really thought it would actually happen. It was just a weird, weird journey.”

Crim was an All-State selection at third base for St. Paul’s in 2015, when he hit .521 and went 12-1 as a pitcher as the Saints reached the semifinals of the AHSAA Class 5A playoffs.

In four seasons at Mississippi College, Crim compiled a .350 batting average and .585 slugging percentage and drove in 196 runs in 189 games.

The Rangers chose Crim in the 19th round of the 2019 draft.

In the intervening years, Crim played for the Spokane Indians, Hickory Crawdads, Frisco RoughRiders and Round Rock in the Texas organization as well as winter ball in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

“He’s playing great baseball,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s a guy that we think a lot of as a person. He plays with energy. He’s got a lot of intangibles about him. And the bat is there. Last year, he got off to a rough start, but this year, he really took it upon himself to get off to a good start and put some pressure on us to bring him up, of which he has done because of our struggles here, so he’ll get most of the time at first base.”

The Rangers sent Jake Burger to Round Rock while calling up Crim in hopes that the first baseman could regain his batting groove. A first-round pick in the 2017 draft, Burger hit 29 home runs for the Miami Marlins last season. But in 100 at-bats for the Rangers in 2025, Burger has three home runs and a .190 batting average.

Crim went 0-for-3 in his MLB debut on Friday night as the Mariners held the Rangers to one hit through the first eight innings.

“My parents were checking into a new Airbnb in Destin yesterday when I called them,” Crim said about sharing the news that he had reached the big leagues, “so they just turned right back around. And they couldn’t really find a flight, so they drove.”

Crim is the fifth player from an Alabama high school or college to make his Major League debut in the 2025 season, joining Washington Nationals pitcher Cole Henry from Florence High School, Detroit Tigers pitcher Chase Lee from McAdory High School and Alabama, Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson from UAB and Kansas City Royals second baseman/outfielder Tyler Tolbert from Hewitt-Trussville High School and UAB.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.