Baseball: Gold Coast 17-year-old Max Durrington signs MLB contract with the Oakland Athletics

At just 17 this Aussie baseball prodigy has secured an eye-watering seven-figure contract, and now he has the chance to make history as a second generation MLB player.

A seven-figure payday at 17 typically means you’ve made it.

But Max Durrington is merely standing at the foot of a monumental mountain that is America’s minor league baseball grind.

On Saturday, he officially put pen to paper on a professional deal with Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics.

It’s a backflip from the Gold Coast teenager’s initial decision to traverse the arguably safer college path with Division One school Arizona State.

There was only one thing that could have changed his mind.

“If he got life-changing money, it’s very hard to turn that down,” said Max’s father Trent Durrington.

Then the Athletics came knocking, and when they eventually slid the cheque book across the table an estimated $AUD1.2 million signing bonus was penned inside.

“The decision made by Max, with us as parents trying to support that decision, was … take the money and go pro,” Trent said.

“He can buy himself a house and not worry as much.”

Trent is one of just 38 Australians to make it to the big league, and would go on to play 140 MLB games for the Anaheim Angels and Milwaukee Brewers. Memorabilia from his career proudly adorns the walls of the Durrington family home.

A special slice of history is dangled in front of the family if Max can crack a Major League game, as they would become the first Australian father-son duo to both play Major League Baseball.

Gold Coast 17yo Max Durrington has signed with the Oakland Athletics in the Major Leagues in the USA. Max Durrington with his father Trent Durrington who also played in the Major Leagues. Picture Glenn Hampson.

Fittingly, Max has already followed in his father’s footsteps, playing baseball with Surfers Paradise, where Trent also played.

He would make his senior debut in the competitive Greater Brisbane League at 15.

Surfers coach Kevin Fenn recalls Max’s first senior outing, where he was only meant to be on the bench, but got thrown in for an at-bat given they had a healthy lead.

“We were like, let’s give him a go, so we did,” Fenn recalled.

“He got out … but he hit a long line drive to left field, and everyone was like, ‘okay, he’s a little bit different.’

“Two years later, when he started playing for us full-time, he took off.

“Max would be a professional athlete in whatever sport he chose to play, that’s the kind of athletic ability he has.

“All of his athletic ability plus the acumen that his dad has passed on for the entirety of his career has put him in a position where he is well above his peers.”

Baseball wasn’t the only sport where Max followed in the footsteps of his father, playing first XV rugby union in the prestigious GPS competition for The Southport School, as Trent did.

The multi-faceted athlete was also a top rugby talent and had played for the Queensland Reds under-15s, and his love for both sports is the reason he’s progressed so far.

Max Durrington playing in an Emerging Reds carnival. Picture: David Clark.

“Universities like the idea of a dual-sport athlete, just as far as athleticism,” Trent explained.

“There’s a real attraction from both the universities and the MLB teams.”

But an untimely MCL strain sustained playing rugby in 2023 derailed his hopes of cracking Australia’s under-18 Baseball World Cup squad.

That was it. A decision had to be made.

“I had to pick one of the two, and baseball seemed to be the sport that I wanted to play for as long as I can,” Max said.

Trent recalls the toll that missing the World Cup took.

Max Durrington (left) as a 12-year-old before he jetted off to Taiwan to represent Australia in the under-13 World Cup. Due to Covid and injury, he hasn’t played in an underage World Cup since. Picture supplied.

“He was only 16, he was still a boy, it’s amazing where he’s come in 12 months physically and more so mentally,” Trent said.

“That certainly affected him not making that team, but he bounced back all right.”

That World Cup was less than 12 months ago, and since then Max has been wholly invested in the baseball dream.

“From that I started to put more effort into the gym, started doing stuff myself,” Max said.

“I was getting to that 16 age where I was like, ‘if I’m gonna do stuff, I’ve gotta do it properly.’

“I started training a lot more and heavier.”

A typical week now consists of six days of hitting, four days in the gym, and three days of sprint training.

That the hitting part comes so frequently is no surprise given Trent has built a purpose built batting cage in their backyard, complete with all the bells and whistles.

Last September, Max was selected for an MLB Showcase Tour of the US, and the highlight was playing a Kansas City Royals instructional team. Catcher Blake Mitchell, who had been taken at pick eight in the draft months prior, was among the opponents a fresh-faced Max was up against.

Gold Coast 17yo Max Durrington has signed with the Oakland Athletics in the Major Leagues in the USA. Picture Glenn Hampson

“That was like ‘okay, I’m playing against the big dogs here at 16’,” Max recalled.

“I was battling, I felt more into the game than what I usually am, it felt like it pushed me to another level that I didn’t think I had and that was pretty cool.

“That played a part in the decision to go pro.”

After that showcase tour, College scouts ramped up their interest in Max.

Division One offers flooded in, with Georgia Tech, Auburn University, the University of Southern California and Arizona State among the powerhouses vying for the Aussie’s signature.

Then the MLB clubs came knocking.

Pittsburgh, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and San Diego all showed interest, but Max was pulled towards the Athletics.

“It came down to the personnel and where they’re located, the Athletics have a very deep history,” he said.

“Their head international scout came down to see me, he’s got a lot of pull in the organisation so I’ve got him to back me up, if I’m in a slump for some reason I won’t just get cut straight away.

“They seem like a very strong staff-oriented and stable culture.”

Max’s journey with the Athletics will begin in September when he heads to the US for five weeks to train in the instructional league in Arizona, where he will get his “feet wet in the organisation” before he heads over full-time in March for the eight-month season.

Despite his youth, he’s eager to lean into the unfamiliarity of the move, and insisted his parents don’t come over to help him settle in September.

“It was almost easier playing because I was out of my comfort zone … I was playing in a better environment and being pushed more,” Max said.

Trent knows all too well the testing slog his son has signed up for, having plugged away in the Minor Leagues for six years himself before he cracked the MLB.

Trent Durrington who played for the Milwaukee Brewers, pictured in 2004. Pic:Geoff/McLachlan.

“It is a grind, it’s a full-time job and there’s high and lows,” Trent said of life in the Minor Leagues, where playing six games a week is commonplace.

“Some pro players, they see their mates back home having a good time and they think s***, they’re not cut out for it.

“But (Max) is a grinder, he’ll work through that.”

The eye-watering figure that accompanies Max’s commitment to the Athletics is one of the most expensive a player in his position has ever received, with most players that sign out of Australia receiving between $20,000 and $100,000.

It’s difficult to fathom that at 17 – before he has had an at-bat for the Athletics or even flown to the US – Max will be paid more than what the vast majority of AFL and NRL players earn over the entirety of a season.

Glenn Williams, Josh Chessner, and Solomon Maguire are the other Aussies who earned an MLB signing bonus in excess of $AUD1 million out of Australia.

Of the trio, Williams managed 13 MLB games, while Maguire is yet to play a Major League game and Chessner recently retired after five years of battling in the Minors.

Conversely, Australian Travis Bazzana turned down an MLB deal – albeit for a lot less cash – and opted for the College route. The move is set to pay dividends on Monday, with the Oregon State University graduate widely tipped to be taken with the number one pick in the MLB draft and become Australia’s inaugural first-round selection.

That an MLB game is still so distant – with six levels of Minor League baseball to work through – doesn’t phase Max.

“It’s a long journey but the aim is to cut down on that journey as much as possible,” he said.

“They say it’s a bit selfish, in Australia you play to win, you play for the team, whereas in the Minor League you got to put out the numbers and keep the stats up and get them as high as you can.

“It’s just one step closer I guess, because of how much I’ve been training and putting in it doesn’t really feel like a big surprise if that makes sense.”

If Max is to be vying for a spot in the Athletics’ Major League side down the line, they will have relocated to Las Vegas and are set to be playing out a shiny new stadium that is set to offer views of the Las Vegas strip, an 18-000 square foot jumbotron, and the world’s largest cable net glass window which will tower over the outfield.

There’s already an Australian connection at the A’s too, with Bjay Cooke playing in their Minor League sides while Jack O’Loughlin is in the Majors.

And as for his million-dollar payday, which lands in his bank account in one hit on Saturday, Max plans to play it safe.

“I’ll just put that into investment and not really think about it unless I need it.”