Former Riverview pitcher heads to Dunedin

When the celebration died down and reality set in, Karson Ligon found himself packing his bare essentials into his car and driving up the road from his family home in Sarasota up to Dunedin on July 16.

The former Riverview High pitcher went in the ninth round of the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays on July 14, but after celebrating with friends and family at a surprise party at his parents’ home, life suddenly became uncertain.

“I’ve got the necessary stuff in the car with me right now,” Ligon said while on the road to Dunedin for initial training and introduction to the team. “I probably did forget some stuff. It was pretty quick, so I just grabbed some stuff, threw it in the car and went. It’s like an hour-and-a-half drive, so I’ll probably come back and get some things. Right now, it’s light packing.”

Once in Dunedin, Ligon found out his professional debut would have to wait. After pitching nearly 60 innings this year for Mississippi State, he said the Blue Jays are monitoring his workload and postponing his minor league assignment until 2026.

That speed bump is nothing new for Ligon after navigating a winding road of pit stops and detours in baseball since he first dreamed of becoming an MLB player as a child.

Ligon was a three-year letterman at Riverview and ranked as the No. 339 high school prospect by Baseball America — headlining a Miami Hurricanes 2021 recruiting class that was ranked first in the Atlantic Coast Conference and seventh in the nation. 

Image courtesy of Mississippi State Athletics

Despite starting 15 games as a freshman, Ligon struggled to a 4.90 ERA and allowed 114 baserunners in 75⅓ innings. Then, arm soreness that wouldn’t go away limited him to just 10 starts as a sophomore, and Ligon’s stats didn’t improve.

He spent almost a full month following that sophomore season contemplating what to do to get his career back on track before transferring to Mississippi State.

“It was tough,” Ligon said. “I had a bunch of meetings with the coaches, but when it was all said and done, I really knew for the better of my career, I did need to leave. The toughest part was leaving the relationships I made. I definitely lost some friends doing that, which sucks because I didn’t want to lose those friends, but I still have friends from there who will be some of my best friends for the rest of my life.”

Ligon said he still talks with Dorian Gonzalez Jr., his freshman year roommate and his “very best friend,” regularly, but largely had to leave the life he made in Miami behind.

In Starkville, Ligon worked on syncing his legs with his upper half to fix his pitching mechanics and reduce the wear and tear on his body. 

He also learned what it was like to play in front of rabid baseball fans — something he may encounter again soon.

Rather than being a relatively unknown athlete like he was in Miami, Ligon suddenly became someone who would be stopped on the street and asked to take photos and sign autographs. 

“Starkville definitely is a baseball-only place,” Ligon said. “The people there love their baseball and they kind of live and die with the wins and losses. When you’re losing or you’re not performing, the fans let you hear it, and when you’re winning and you are performing, they really let you hear it. That’s what makes it such a cool place because it really matters to the whole city.”

After working as a reliever in his first season as a Bulldog, Ligon started 15 games as a senior this past spring. His ERA never improved, and he reached a career high of 5.40 this year, but his peripheral stats became intriguing. 

Ligon became a strikeout pitcher in Starkville. He struck out 73 batters in 56⅔ innings, the first time in his career that he averaged over one strikeout per inning, while also improving his control. 

That improvement and his status as a college senior made him an appealing draft prospect for MLB teams. 

However, he has leverage. 

Ligon said he received offers from two teams in the seventh round of the draft, but declined them both for financial reasons before accepting the Blue Jays’ offer.

If Ligon’s dream goes according to plan, he could find himself one day playing in Canada, a country he’s visited just once before on a family trip to Niagara Falls. 

“I honestly think it’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s going to be a new experience. It could have been easier to go to the Rays and live around here, but I get to go up to a totally new place and see what it’s like up there.”

Ligon is still close to home while training at the Blue Jays’ spring training complex in Dunedin, but he could be on the move somewhere in the coming years — possibly to the team’s High-A team in Vancouver, its Double-A team in New Hampshire or its Triple-A team in Buffalo.