‘I’m officially a Yankee now’: Arva native signs his first professional baseball contract

Blake Gillespie of Arva, Ont. signs his first professional baseball contract with the NY Yankees after being selected in the 9th round of the 2025 MLB Draft. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

On the day Blake Gillespie signed his professional contract, he walked through the player development complex and already got a taste of the big leagues.

“[Ryan] Yarborough was there, so I met him,” said Gillespie, speaking via Zoom to CTV News in Tampa, Fla. “It’s super awesome. And obviously very professional. It kind of still feels surreal to me. Like it hasn’t all set in, but I’m officially a Yankee now. Once I get into my routine, it’ll start to feel more real. Even just today, seeing some big leaguers rehabbing in the training room, just like they’re just there, it’s super cool.”

The ninth-round pick arrived in Tampa Tuesday night and is ready to get to work as a professional Thursday.

“Just getting settled in with all my new coaches and figuring out the development plan for me going forward,” said Gillespie. “I don’t really have a set-in-stone plan, but it’s very likely that I just don’t pitch for the rest of the year, as I pitched a lot at school. Just going to kind of take this time to get bigger, stronger, work on some stuff and take that into the fall where I may face some hitters. I’ll build toward Spring Training but probably not going to be pitching anywhere this year.”

The Medway High School grad had a breakout season with the University of Charlotte 49ers, including throwing the second no-hitter in program history.

In AAC play, Gillespie posted a 1.39 ERA with 84 strikeouts across 64.2 innings, and in the ACC Championship he struck out 13 batters, tying the conference tournament record for most strikeouts by a pitcher in a game.

He said he didn’t really have a favourite baseball team growing up, but likely was the Toronto Blue Jays being a Canadian. He ended up being selected in the ninth-round of the draft by one of their biggest rivals.

“We kind of had a general idea of the rounds but probably went a little later than we’re all anticipating, but it’s the draft and stuff like that happens,” said Gillespie. “I’m just super grateful I landed with such a great organization. You can’t really predict ahead of time, so I landed with the best one.”

The London area has produced more than a dozen big league players, and Gillespie hopes to be next in line.

“That’s the dream, so hopefully I can make that come true,” he said.