For the third time in Bishop Heelan history, there will be a Crusader on a Major League Baseball roster.
Tyler Cropley ‘14 was called up from Double-A Northwest Arkansas on Saturday, marking the first time the Crusader standout will be on the Kansas City Royals roster.
Cropley was put on a plane to Toronto, Ontario, to join the team in Canada, as the Royals are playing the Blue Jays this weekend.
The Iowa Hawkeye grad has spent most of the season with the Double-A affiliate of the Royals. This season, Cropley is hitting .234 with four home runs and 17 RBIs in 43 games. He has been one of the catchers with the Naturals.
This is Cropley’s fifth season in Minor League Baseball. He has 102 hits in 160 career games in Kansas City’s farm system.
When Cropley was a Heelan senior, he hit .466 with four homers and 37 RBIs. He had a solid pitching season, too, earning four wins and having an ERA of 0.89. The Crusaders went 31-8 in 2014.
He drove in 142 total runs for the Crusaders, including a career-high 43 in 2012.