When to Start Travel Baseball — Play Local Until He Dominates

The MLB dream starts in t-ball. Most families try to skip the years that actually build the player because a jersey and a hotel felt like progress.

Ages 7 to 12: stay local

Travel baseball has an important place in a player’s life. However, it isn’t at 9U. From age 7–12, players should be playing locally. If a player is dominant at a local level in their age group, they need to age up instead of travelling all over the country to find better competition. For example, if your son is 10 and he is dominating at the 10U Majors level, move up to 11U Majors or 12U. That will challenge your son with players who are physically more mature and stronger. It will also get him used to playing against older players, which is something he will have to do in high school anyway. The development work still happens at home.

Ages 13 to 15: regional, maybe one national

When your son turns 13 through 15, chances are he will need to begin playing at a regional level. Playing with and against players from a radius of 100 miles to driving a few hours will become more normal. This is because at 13, better players really start to stand out. However, a 13-year-old can still play against a 14- and 15-year-old as well. At this point, maybe planning on 1 national tournament a year isn’t a bad idea because it will show your son what the best players look like throughout the country. It’s a big baseball world out there and he needs to have some exposure to that so he can know what he’s up against.

Once he turns 15, playing regional will be the standard because the volume of players has been significantly reduced since 10. Continuing to play up is important as well to challenge him against players who are beginning to become men.

Ages 16 to 18: national, because recruiting is real

Finally, at 16, 17 and 18, chances are he will need to play more of a national circuit. This is for two reasons. First, if he is an upper-level player, he will need to compete against the best players. Second, at this age, the recruiting process is in full swing.

My point is this: there will be plenty of opportunities to travel and there will definitely be a need to spend quite a bit of money on it. At the younger ages, focus the time and energy on developing and competing at the highest level he can at a local level. Scale the travel with his age. For how the industry sold the other order, read Why Travel Baseball Took Over.