As part of a weekly look-in at the many independent baseball leagues across the country covered and streamed on its platforms, FloBaseball’s Player of the Week series highlights the best of the best from indy ball over the week that was.

Jack Reinheimer, an infielder for the Gastonia Honey Hunters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, takes this week's honor. 

Here’s a look at Reinheimer’s week, along with his background and a peek into his independent league season to date:

Career Look-Back

While many indy ball players are trying to grind away and make it to the major leagues, Reinheimer—a fifth-round draft pick out of East Carolina by the Seattle Mariners in 2013—has already gone and done just that in his career. 

The 31-year-old eventually found his way to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ organization via trade, which was the club that he made his MLB debut with in August 2017, playing in two games that year for the D-Backs. He was waived by Arizona the next year, but the New York Mets scooped him up in July and he recorded his first major-league hit the next month, eventually playing in 21 games with the Mets while holding a .167 batting average. 

Reinheimer spent the 2019 and 2021 seasons in Triple-A with the Baltimore Orioles and back again with the Mariners, respectively, with his Atlantic League debut coming in 2022 when he opted to sign with Gastonia. 

He hit the ground running immediately there, batting .281 with 69 RBIs in 121 games to be named an ALPB End-Of-Season All-Star and earn a brief trip back to the minors with the Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals this season after the club purchased his contract. 

When he was then released by the Royals in August, he re-signed with the Honey Hunters and has been a force there ever since.

Standout Performances

With Gastonia in the middle of a playoff push, Reinheimer—who is slashing .310/.399/.530 over his stints with the team this season—has been one of the team’s most critical pieces amid the charge. 

No performance since his return, however, has been better since the single-day stat line he put up in a doubleheader Sept. 5 against the High Point Rockers. Reinheimer went just 1 for 3 in Game 1, though it was a solo home run in the sixth inning, which softened the blow of losing 8-2. 

In Game 2, as the Honey Hunters stormed out to a 7-0 victory, Reinheimer really let loose. He went 2 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs, all of which came via a pair of homers in the fifth and seventh innings to allow Gastonia (with its pitchers combining to throw a two-hitter) to even up the twin bill in style.

Since then, he’s kept chipping away for the Honey Hunters, who currently are in pursuit of an ALPB South Division second-half title as they’re currently tied with High Point for the lead. 

Reinheimer had a pair of RBIs in Gastonia’s 8-2 victory over the Charleston Dirty Birds this past Saturday, for instance, and went 2-for-4 batting with two runs in the Honey Hunters’ 5-1 win Wednesday against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, too.