Jared Graziano ’11 Says Peddie Was “One of the Best Decisions I Ever Made”

Second from the right: Jared Graziano ’11

Peddie baseball alumnus Jared Graziano ’11, director of N.J. Marlins baseball and an associate scout for the Texas Rangers, returned to campus on Oct. 1 to host a panel discussion about recruiting for college baseball.

With about 250 in attendance at the Ian H. Graham ’50 Athletic Center, the panel consisted of nine college baseball coaches, along with recruiting coordinators.

The panel discussed “finding your fit” and how to “separate yourself.”

As a post graduate and pitcher on the baseball team, Graziano said he took away many life lessons from Peddie.

“There’s no shortcuts in life and Peddie really taught me that,” Graziano said. “I was the type of kid who was smart and kind of skated by and got a couple of A’s, mainly B’s and I got by without studying. But when I came here, Peddie really taught me how much harder I had to work in the classroom.”

Graziano said Erik Treese, his baseball coach, was a great mentor to him.

“The athletic facilities here and the education is second-to-none,” Graziano said. “It took everything to the next level, academics, athletics and everything.”

Prior to Peddie, Graziano attended Red Bank Catholic for four years. As a highly-recruited pitching arm out of high school, he had a couple of offers from Division II and Division III schools, but he wanted to pursue his dream of playing Division I baseball.

“Development-wise and what I wanted to achieve athletically and academically, I thought why not give myself another year of development, and Peddie allowed me to do that,” he said. “It was probably one of the best decisions I ever made and my family made for me to get an extra year of high school and development and obviously, the academics speak for themselves. I probably learned more here in one year than I probably did in four years.”

His work paid off; he received several Division I offers and attended the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Injuries unfortunately interfered with his collegiate baseball career. He eventually transferred to Felician University in Rutherford, which he called an “amazing” experience.

“Division II baseball is no joke, we were ranked 14th in the country and with our pitching staff, we probably had five to eight 90-plus mile-per-hour arms,” he said. “A few guys got drafted off our team. It taught me there’s talent at all levels of college baseball.”

After graduating Felician, Graziano’s father, who started the N.J. Marlins, was battling brain cancer. At the age of 23, Graziano stepped in and took over the business.

“It was a little baptism by fire, but being a 31-year-old man now, it’s made me a better businessman and a tougher individual in life now,” he said. “It was a huge learning experience during a really tough time in my life.”

In 2018, another door opened for Graziano. While attending a national event with the N.J. Marlins in Georgia, he met the area scout for the Northeast for the Texas Rangers, who recruited some of Graziano’s father’s Marlins players over the years. Two months later, he received a request to send his resume along and has been with the organization as an associate scout ever since.

“I get paid to watch baseball and it goes hand-in-hand already with what I do,” he said. “I get to see tons of talent all over the country every year and the Rangers see value in that and it helps them, and it obviously helps me with my business as well.”

Graziano’s advice to student-athletes at Peddie is to work hard and not take anything for granted.

“Peddie has a multi-million dollar athletic facility. If you want to be an athlete, take advantage of what you have,” Graziano said. “Take it from a guy who played Division I baseball, if I could go back again, I’d work even harder, especially with all of the assets they have here at this school.”