Knights’ Nate Fisher won’t let 1 game with Mets define him. He eyes another shot at MLB

When Charlotte Knights pitcher Nate Fisher takes the mound on Sunday night against the Louisville Bats, he won’t be thinking about the adversity he has faced throughout his baseball career.

Fisher won’t lament about walking onto Nebraska’s baseball squad or going undrafted after college. He’ll avoid thinking about his short-lived banking career during the pandemic in between stints with the Seattle Mariners organization. But most of all, he won’t dwell on his one game in the major leagues with the New York Mets, which came and went in a matter of minutes last season.

Instead, he’ll focus on his love for the game, and that he’s still pitching for a professional baseball team at 27, despite all of the above.

“It’s a grind,” Fisher said Wednesday. “All I try to do is just do my job every time and just eliminate thoughts of, ‘Am I good enough? Am I not good enough?’ It’s just, ‘I’m Nate Fisher, here I am, and I’m just going to go down swinging with my best stuff.’ ”

Fisher has needed to bring his best wherever he’s been.

Fisher was a team captain in baseball, basketball and football at Yutan High School in Yutan, Nebraska. Following Fisher’s three-sport high school career, he auditioned for the Cornhuskers baseball team as a walk-on. He then appeared in nine games as a true freshman, but missed his entire sophomore season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015.

Fisher returned in 2017 as a member of the bullpen and slowly worked his way into the starter rotation in 2018. Fisher capped his college career with a redshirt senior season that featured 15 starts, a 7-3 record and a 3.27 ERA. His seven wins led the squad, as did his 68 strikeouts on the season. Despite that success, Fisher went undrafted in 2019.

Fisher eventually signed a contract with the Mariners, but he was released in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down spring training. Around that time, Fisher completed his graduate degree in business administration at Nebraska. He had previously earned a bachelor’s degree in finance, which came in handy when he found himself without a baseball in his hand.

He returned to Omaha, Nebraska, to work for First National Bank.

“I took a job at a bank doing commercial lending,” Fisher said. “Then kind of out of the blue, the Mariners called me and said they wanted to re-sign me.”

While that second chance breathed new life into his baseball career, Fisher’s second stint with the Mariners organization didn’t last long, as he went unsigned entering the 2022 season. However, he was picked up by the Mets and eventually received the opportunity of a lifetime.

Fisher appeared in his first and only MLB game on Aug. 21, 2022, against the Phillies in Philadelphia. He entered the game in the bottom of the fifth inning and proceeded to throw 50 pitches — with 31 strikes — that led to one walk, one hit and zero runs.

It was a successful relief assignment, by most measures, in a 10-9 win against the eventual 2022 National League Champions. But Fisher was immediately designated for assignment to the minor leagues the next day.

“It was a crazy day — just backtracking from being at the bank and then a year later to say I’m pitching in Philly, in the big leagues, was surreal,” Fisher said. “And then to have success — I’m on the top of the world — and then just to get sent back down, and it was just a quick — it stunk at the time.”

Fisher spent the rest of last season with the Syracuse Mets in the minor leagues. The New York Mets then passed on re-signing him, so Fisher was forced to find another new baseball home.

During free agency this offseason, the Chicago White Sox’s front office reached out to Fisher, and the two sides shared a similar vision for him. He then joined the Knights this season.

So far, he’s made a strong impression on Knights manager Justin Jirschele, who calls Fisher a “pro’s pro” on his roster.

“He does a lot of things well,” Jirschele said. “I think just his mindset every time out there — he’s a confident kid. He goes right after hitters, he attacks the zone. He never backs down from the moment.”

Catcher Sebastián Rivero says Fisher has an excellent command of his fastball. Rivero also compliments Fisher’s use of sliders and curveballs. But, ultimately, Fisher’s biggest contribution to the Knights might be his consistency as a teammate.

“He always brings a lot of energy to us,” Rivero said. “Before the game, after the game, even if we lose, we win — he’s pumped.”

Fisher says that when he arrives at Truist Field on game days — even when he’s not pitching — he asks himself what he can do during the day to make himself better for his next outing. He uses that mindset for lifting, throwing and working within the bullpen.

He also takes time to soak in the atmosphere.

“Probably one of the coolest, most beautiful parks that I’ve played in, in the minor leagues,” Fisher said. “It’s incredible. It’s a great yard.”

But as much as he enjoys playing in Charlotte, Fisher’s ultimate goal is to get back to the majors. He wants to get another bite at the apple, and he hopes that comes within his current stint with the White Sox organization.

“Prior to being in the big leagues, I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough or not — I don’t know if I got a shot,’ ” Fisher said. “I believed in myself, but then once you get a taste of it, you just want more and more and more. So after that quick little taste, I’ve just tried to work my butt off to get back there.”