Former O's prospect a contestant on The Bachelorette originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
A former Baltimore Orioles prospect is competing in a different way these days.
Mike Planeta, who spent five seasons in Baltimore's farm system, is now a contestant on ABC's "The Bachelorette" along with 30 other men looking for love on the ever-popular dating competition show.
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Drafted in the same class as the likes of Mike Trout and Stephen Strasburg in 2009, albeit much later in the 27th round, Planeta reached the Advanced A-Frederick team in 2013. He now owns a gym in San Diego.
With 50 selections from the O's in that draft, and 1,521 total selections, it's no surprise that not everyone became professional baseball players in the major leagues. Planeta, though, is now in even more of the limelight than many of his peers who were taken in the later rounds.
In five seasons, the right-handed outfielder had seven home runs, 116 RBIs and 342 hits, with a .312 slugging rate in 387 games. Now, with the ultimate goal to create the perfect pitch for this season's bachelorette, Katie Thurston, to find him as the ideal romantic partner, Planeta is relying on the core values in which he was raised.
"When people find out that this great-looking guy used to play professional baseball, they assume that he must be a 'player,' but that could not be further from the truth," his profile on the Bachelorette reads. "Mike grew up in a very loving family where the cornerstone of his upbringing was his faith. He has always been a one-woman type of guy, but due to his successful run in the MLB, dating was never really a priority in his life. Now, after retiring from baseball and opening up a gym for high school athletes, Mike is ready to focus on the missing piece in his life – finding love."
