Baseball America

RISING STAR

Nick Schnabel ended a quiet fourth professional season Aug. 26, 2003, when he had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He was 25 and the one-time 31st-round pick out of East Carolina had spent the season with high Class A Brevard County in the Montreal Expos’ system.

As Schnabel went through rehab for his shoulder surgery, he began to wonder if it might be time to go into coaching, as he had long wanted to once his playing career ended. Fortuitously, then-East Carolina coach Randy Mazey had an opening on his staff that fall and called Schnabel to see if he was interested.

Mazey had recruited Schnabel to ECU out of junior college and, now, five years

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