Volo native Noda plans to bounce back from rough second season with A’s
In high school, Volo native Ryan Noda first hit the scene as an athletic point guard in basketball, the type of player who would get a steal in the backcourt and throw down a fast break dunk.
Now he's trying to stick in the big leagues as a power hitting first baseman for the Oakland A's.
“I think growing up, hockey was actually my No. 1 sport for a long time,” he said Tuesday at Wrigley Field. “Going into freshman year, I had to choose between hockey or baseball and basketball. I was like, 'I'd rather do two sports than one.'”
Baseball likely moved into the top spot during his sophomore year at Grant Community High School in Fox Lake. That 2012 team finished third in the state in Class 4A.
“That was such a fun team to be on,” he said. “We had fun and we were good.”
After high school, Noda played in college at Cincinnati and spent one year as a teammate of Cubs outfielder Ian Happ. As a freshman new to the team, Noda said he followed Happ's example on the baseball field, as well as his coffee recommendations.
“He was about helping the young guys because he wanted to win,” Noda said. “He was definitely someone us freshmen would look up to; just kind of see what he does and follow that lead.”
Drafted in the 15th round by Toronto in 2017, Noda was traded to the Dodgers in '21, then claimed off waivers by the Athletics in December of 2022. Oakland gave Noda what every minor-leaguer needs, an opportunity.
Noda spent all of 2023 with the A's, other than a brief rehab assignment. He showed some promise, hitting .229 with 16 home runs and 54 RBI in 128 games.
He went into spring training this year looking to make some adjustments and improvements at the plate, and they didn't work. Batting in the low .100s, he was sent down to the minors on May 2 and didn't return to the big-league club until last week.
“Sometimes trial and error is the best way to learn, no matter how hard it is,” Noda said. “At the end of the day, it's going to be good in the long run because now I know how to go about it, how to handle it, the ups and the downs.
“I think at the end of my career, hopefully 10 years from now, I'll be able to look back and kind of smile and laugh at things I've been going through.”
The good news is he got back on track at Triple A Las Vegas, hitting .281 in August with 7 home runs in 24 games. Noda's minor-league high was 29 home runs for the Dodgers' Double A team in Tulsa in 2021.
“Now it's just trying to get back to who I was and what I'm capable of, because I know I can be really good in this league and I can be a game-changer,” he said. “Then we go to the offseason and just get into the lab and get back to who I was and what I can be.”
Noda followed his dad's lead and grew up a White Sox fan. One of the better games of his rookie season was at Guaranteed Rate Field, when he went 3-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBI last year on Aug. 25.
His mom's side of the family is Cubs fans, so they appreciated his first game Monday at Wrigley Field. Noda entered the game as a defensive replacement in right field and was on-deck when the game ended.
“It was awesome,” he said. “We had a couple guys say, 'We want to play on the North Side on the weekend.' I said, 'Well, North Side it's always the weekend.'”