Phone call points Connor Joe in new baseball direction

August 5 was like any other day in the minor leagues for Poway’s Connor Joe.

The major league trade deadline had come and gone. Nothing happened to anyone on his team, the Altoona Curve, the Double-A farm team of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Then his phone rang.

“It was Larry Broadway, the farm director,’’ Joe said. “Not every day a minor leaguer hears from the farm director.’’

Broadway informed Joe, a first baseman and former No. 1 draft pick in 2014, that he’d been traded to the Atlanta Braves for major league infielder Sean Rodriguez.

“My mind went into a fog,’’ Joe said. “Being traded straight up for a big leaguer made me feel a little better.

“It was a strange place to be. I wasn’t part of the Pirates anymore.’’

He had to wait 30 minutes to hear from the Braves, so he called his dad, who sensed something had happened as soon as he answered the phone.

“That 30 minutes seemed like a couple of days,’’ said Joe, who turned 25 on Wednesday. “I called my mom and my girlfriend and I couldn’t answer their questions. I didn’t know anything.

“They kept saying I should see the positive side. Not that Pirates didn’t want me but that the Braves did.’’

Going from the Curve to the Double-A Mississippi Braves in Pearl, just outside Jackson, was not as easy as packing a bag and leaving town.

Just off the seven-day disabled list after suffering a dislocated left middle finger on his glove hand June 28, the 6-foot, 205-pound Joe went to the clubhouse in Trenton, New Jersey, where the Curve were playing the Yankees farm team. He gathered his baseball gear, went to the hotel to pack up his clothes, caught an Uber ride to Philadelphia, then took a flight back to Altoona to clear out that locker. Then there was a quick trip to his apartment to pack up before taking a 16-hour drive in his car to Pearl.

In Pearl, Joe will be staying with a host family while the lease runs out this month on his apartment in Altoona.

“The whole thing was a little stressful,’’ said Joe, who was hitting .240 with five home runs and 30 RBIs at the time of the trade. “That’s the business side of baseball and the first lesson is I can only control what I can control.

“I’m really excited about starting over in front of new eyes in the Braves’ organization.

“I learned a lot of life skills as well as baseball skills with Pittsburgh. Every dream I ever had of making the big leagues was with Pittsburgh, but I guess you can’t get too attached to an organization, especially in the minors.’’

The Pirates chose Joe with the 39th pick in the draft after he was named the West Coast Conference player of the year as a junior at USD.

He batted .367 with nine homers and a conference-leading 51 RBIs.

Joe was a third baseman until he got to USD, which already had Kris Bryant, the National League MVP after helping the Cubs to the World Series title for the first time in 108 years, there.

So Joe moved to first base.

He even learned to catch the summer in 2013 while playing in the prestigious Cape Cod League.

“I got a different perspective on things behind the plate,’’ Joe said. “Whatever someone sees as a way to get to the big leagues, I’ll do it. Whatever they want me to do.

“That’s kind of how I’m approaching what’s left of this season and the offseason now that I’m in a different organization.’’