Sport: Baseball
Born: June 29, 1992
Town: Livingston, New Jersey
Frank J. Schwindel Jr. was born June 29, 1992 in Livingston. Blessed with excellent hand-eye coordination and a powerful build, Frank took softball-style cuts during his youth career, which started in the town’s Little League program and concluded at Livingston High School, where he played first base for Scott Schroeder. As a junior in 2009 and again as a senior in 2010, Frank was named the school’s Male Athlete of the Year and was all-county, all-conference and all-state in baseball. The 2009 team won the Greater Newark Tournament.
Frank continued his diamond career at St. John’s University, where he batted .332 as a sophomore and .349 as a junior with 5 homers and 53 RBIs in 58 games—and was named All-Big East and conference Player of the Year. The Royals selected Frank in the 18th round of the 2013 draft and promptly forgot about him, despite the fact he topped 20 homers five years in a row. The problem was, in four of those seasons, he had fewer walks than homers. No one questioned Frank’s power but his big, leg-swinging swing and lack of strike-zone judgment did not project to success at the big-league level. Not even the 2017 Brett Award, which is bestowed on the Royals’ top minor league hitter, got the KC brass excited, however it did earn him an invitation to spring training in 2018. A notoriously slow starter, Frank went hitless in his first 18 at bats…and then collected 13 hits in his next 17 at bats—including six home runs. Manager Ned Yost described his violent swing as “unique.” Danny Duffy began calling him “Frank the Tank.”
Frank’s Cactus League success did not produce an invitation north, but in 2019 Frank did make the team out of spring training. He saw action in five games before the organization decided to release him in May. A couple of weeks later, the Tigers signed Frank to a minor league deal but Detroit released him after the season. Like many minor leaguers, he ended up sitting out the 2020 campaign because of COVID. In November 2020, the Oakland A’s signed Frank—an odd move for a club that places a high value on plate discipline. The contract was just a minor-league deal, but the timing couldn’t have been better, as Frank and his wife, Katherine, were expecting their first child that winter.
Frank began 2021 in the minors and got a call-up to Oakland in June. He hit a home run in his first at bat, off of Kolby Allard of the Texas Rangers. He collected two more hits over the next seven games before the team decided to send him back down. That turned out to be a stroke of good fortune for Frank because the Chicago Cubs, amidst a salary-driven house cleaning that would include Mike Rizzo, plucked Frank off waivers and handed him the first base job at the beginning of August, after Rizzo joined the Yankees.
The Cubs were looking for a competent placeholder. Instead, they got the hottest hitter in the major leagues over the season’s final two months. Frank joined the team batted under .150 but by the end of August his average at soared over .300. He clubbed 6 homers and knocked in 18 runs to earn NL Rookie of the Month. Instead of colling off, Frank kept scorching the ball in September, with three straight three-hit games against the Pirates (earning him Player of the Week honors) and then smashed 7 more round-trippers to finish the year with 14 homers, 43 RBIs and a .326 average. He was named NL Rookie of the Month again for September. Needless to say, he became a cult hero to the fans at Wrigley Field.
Following his eye-opening 2021 campaign with the Cubs, Frank returned to New Jersey, where he was inducted into the Big L Club—Livingston High’s Hall of Fame. His cousin Kate, a soccer star at LHS, was inducted during the same ceremony. When the Rookie of the Year voting was announced, Frank had been named first on two ballots, despite playing just 64 games. He finished 6th overall.
Frank obviously was not a .300 hitter and, with a winter of video to watch, enemy hurlers found the holes in swing in 2022. He started the year hovering around .200 and then injured his back. He finished the season with 8 home runs and a .229 average. His best game came in a May win over the Reds. Frank went 3-for-5, scored three times and clubbed a pair of homers. Unfortunately, those days were the exception, not the rule, and the Cubs released him at the end of the season.
In 2023, Frank suited up for the Orix Buffaloes in Japan’s Pacific League and batted .245 in 33 games.