Another Gordon is on track to make Chattanooga the next stop on his ascent to major league baseball.
Shortstop Nick Gordon, the younger brother of former Lookouts shortstop Dee Gordon, is projected to begin the 2017 season with Class AA Chattanooga after hitting .291 in 116 games last season at high Single-A Fort Myers in the Florida State League and then hitting .346 in 21 Arizona Fall League contests. Chattanooga's season-opening roster will not be revealed until early April, but Minnesota Twins player development director Brad Steil hinted at Gordon's impending destination when explaining why he extended his season last year.
"Considering the season Nick had with the Miracle, we thought the AFL would be a natural progression in his development and would help prepare him for the jump to Double-A," Steil told Twins Daily last month.
Chattanooga will open its 2017 season on April 6 against the Mobile BayBears at AT&T Field.
Gordon is in Minnesota's big-league camp as a nonroster invitee, and the 21-year-old is rated by Baseball America as the top prospect in the organization. Minnesota will play its first spring-training game Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays in Fort Myers.
The Twins made Gordon their top selection in the 2014 draft, taking him with the fifth overall pick out of Olympia High School in Orlando, and they signed him for $3.85 million. He hit .294 with rookie league Elizabethton (Tenn.) in 2014 and batted .277 with Single-A Cedar Rapids (Iowa) in 2015.
Gordon's season with Fort Myers included 52 RBIs and 19 stolen bases, but he saved his best for the Surprise Saguaros, leading the AFL team in average, triples (two), steals (five) and on-base percentage (.418). He committed only two errors in the 21 games.
"I definitely knew the competition was going to be good, but I knew I could go out there and compete," Gordon told Twins Daily. "It's why I train so hard all season doing the things that I do - so I could just go out there and have fun. I knew going out there that there were guys going to the big leagues or had even played in the big leagues."
Dee Gordon hit .277 with 39 RBIs and stole 53 bases in 133 games with the 2010 Lookouts, who were in their second season of a six-year affiliation with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The elder Gordon hit .289 with Los Angeles in 2014 before being traded to the Miami Marlins, where he has since posted a .311 average.
The Gordons are sons of former relief pitcher Tom "Flash" Gordon, who pitched in the majors for 21 seasons, including eight with the Kansas City Royals. He was a three-time All-Star selection and led the American League in saves in 1998 as a member of the Boston Red Sox.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.