Garrett Stubbs

Early and personal life

Stubbs is from Del Mar, California, and is Jewish. His parents are T Pat and Marti (née Gellens), and his maternal grandmother is Maxine Gellens. His younger brother, C. J., also played baseball for Torrey Pines, and is now a sophomore pitching at USC. His step-grandfather, Fred Shuey, played Minor League Baseball as an outfielder in the 1960s, and had Garrett train with former Major League Baseball catcher Ed Herrmann starting when Garrett was nine years old.

High school

Stubbs attended Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, California. He was twice named to the All-California Interscholastic Federation team for baseball, and was twice named All-North County and All-Avocado League 1st team. As a senior, he batted .391 with 27 runs, 13 doubles, and 18 RBIs.

College

Stubbs enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) where he earned a degree in policy planning and development with an emphasis on real estate, and played college baseball for the USC Trojans. In the summer of 2012, he played for the Peninsula Oilers in the Alaska Baseball League. In 2013 as a sophomore, he was an Honorable Mention for the All-Pac-12 Conference team. In the summer of 2013, he played for the Plymouth Pilgrims in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, and was named a New England Collegiate Baseball League Eastern Division All-Star. Later that summer he played for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod League.

After his junior year, when Stubbs became eligible to be selected in the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft, he made it known that he intended to return to college for his senior year. In 2015, his senior year at USC, Stubbs batted .346 (6th in the Pac-12 Conference) and tied for the conference lead in sacrifices (17), while coming in 3rd in steals (20), 5th in runs (51) and OBP (.435), and tied for 7th in doubles (15), while on defense he threw out 52.8% of attempted basestealers and made 3 errors in 468 chances. Stubbs won the Johnny Bench Award as the best catcher in college baseball, and was named the Pac-12 Conference's Defensive Player of the Year, Baseball America First-Team All-American, Rawlings First-Team All-American, and Jewish Sports Review College Baseball All American.

Professional career

The Houston Astros selected Stubbs in the eighth round of the 2015 MLB Draft. He signed with the Astros for a signing bonus of $100,000, and made his professional debut with the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League. After 11 games with Tri-City, the Astros promoted Stubbs to the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League.

In 2016, Stubbs began the season with the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League, with whom he was a California League Mid-Season All Star, before receiving a promotion to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League in July. Stubbs finished 2016 with an aggregate .304 batting average, along with 10 home runs and 54 RBIs, while on defense throwing out 51% of attempted base stealers. He was named a milb.com Houston Organization All Star. After the season, the Astros assigned Stubbs to the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League.

In 2017, MLB Pipeline named him the best catcher in the Astros' minor league system, and the organization's 11th-best prospect overall. He was a AA Texas League starting All Star, and in the game he tripled and drove in three runs for the winning South.