WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Western Mass News is your local sports authority, with one local sports star is now the newest member of the Seattle Mariners. Western Mass News caught up with the new pro who’ll be trading his medium iced coffee from Dunkin’ for a venti iced coffee from Starbucks.

For Chris Torres, the dream of playing professional baseball wasn’t always a straight line. it started right here in western Mass. At West Springfield High School, where he was a three-sport athlete and a record-breaker on the mound.

From there he pitched a year at Eastern Connecticut State University before transferring to University of South Carolina upstate where he won back-to-back conference tournament titles and berths into the NCAA regionals.

“I had basically everything I needed at USC Upstate. The head coach, you know, he stuck with me through some of my hardest struggles at USC Upstate,” Chris Torres said, “but, you know, super grateful for USC Upstate and everything they’ve done for me those past two years.”

In two seasons as a Spartan, Torres pitched 158 innings, registering 13 wins and 149 strikeouts.

During the summers, he’d also pitch for the Valley Blue Sox in Holyoke – which all lead to him getting drafted by the Seattle Mariners in last week’s MLB amateur draft, “Hearing my name called, I’m still processing this, like, a week later,” Torres shared with Western Mass News his disbelief of hearing his name called in the draft, “It was such a surreal moment, and me and my parents were all there celebrating, you know, listening. I got the phone call in about the 15th round from my advisor saying that Seattle wanted to take me, and I was all for it.”

Torres is the first western Mass. Native go pro in baseball since fellow Westside Terrier Nick Dombkowski signed to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2021.

Even after playing in the highest level of college baseball and with a pro contract in hand, Torres never forgot the accomplishments he achieved while playing for West Springfield, “definitely winning that western Mass championship my senior year. It was a little bit of sweet revenge, you know, beating East Longmeadow, beating Central, and then beating Pope Francis in the finals. I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

Chris is now training in Arizona, refining his skills with the Mariners’ player development staff and other prospects.

It’s just the next step, and for Torres, the dream of pitching in front of 48,000 fans at T-Mobile Park is closer than ever.

Copyright 2026 Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.