"Keep Going, No Matter What": Michael Sandle Fights Through Adversity
Published on June 22, 2026 under Frontier League (FL)
Windy City ThunderBolts News Release
Last summer, Michael Sandle emerged as a Frontier League All-Star. This season, he's making another case for it.
Through the first month and a half of 2026, the Windy City ThunderBolts outfielder found himself near the top of the Frontier League leaderboards in batting average and on-base percentage, once again establishing himself as one of the league's most productive hitters.
But before he became one of the Frontier League's premier players, Sandle was a high school standout from Navarre, Florida, who climbed all the way to Triple-A in the Houston Astros' organization only to be released. A few months later, after getting a second chance in independent baseball, he was released again.
Twice in about two months, professional baseball told Sandle that his career might be over. Today, he's one of the faces of the ThunderBolts' lineup.
As a kid in the Florida panhandle, Sandle seemed to have a knack for the big moment. Whether it was on the football field or the baseball diamond, big moments seemed to find him. He made a game-sealing interception on homecoming night as a senior at Navarre High School. A year earlier, he helped lead the Raiders to an upset district championship in baseball.
As his high school career came to an end, Sandle had opportunities to continue playing both sports. He held football offers from Florida Atlantic, Troy and Southeastern Louisiana, while Florida A&M and South Alabama offered him a chance to play baseball.
Ultimately, Sandle began looking at the bigger picture.
"I had a love of the game for both," Sandle said. "But I really loved baseball."
The decision led him to South Alabama. With the Jaguars, Sandle spent five seasons establishing himself as one of the Sun Belt's most consistent hitters, finishing his collegiate career as a .289 hitter.
The Houston Astros noticed.
In the 10th round of the 2021 MLB Draft, Sandle heard his name called. For three seasons, he worked his way through the Astros' minor league system, climbing as high as Triple-A with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys in 2023.
Every step of Sandle's baseball career had followed a familiar script. He made teams. He earned opportunities. He kept moving forward.
Then he was called into the office.
After three seasons in the Astros' organization, Sandle was informed he was being released. He understood the business side of professional baseball. During his first week in affiliated ball, he watched eight players get released. This time, though, it was his turn.
For the first time in his baseball career, Sandle had been told he no longer had a spot on a team.
"It was really upsetting, [I was] definitely crushed," Sandle said. "I was angry, I felt like I had so much left on the table and that I could still play."
The anger and frustration that initially accompanied his release quickly transformed into motivation. Sandle still believed he could play. Not long after, another opportunity arrived.
A friend Sandle had met during his time in the Astros' organization had landed with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League and called with a simple message: Come to Gateway.
Sandle did.
He played well during spring training and earned a spot on the Grizzlies' Opening Day roster in 2024. Just a few months after being released by the Astros, he had another chance.
Then, on Opening Night, everything changed.
Facing the Lake Erie Crushers, Sandle walked in each of his first three plate appearances. He hadn't even swung the bat. When he stepped into the batter's box for his fourth trip to the plate, he took his first swing of the night and immediately felt pain shoot through his hand.
Sandle finished the game and tried to continue playing through the injury. But as the pain worsened, he was eventually forced out of the lineup just a few days later. With his hand "really messed up," Gateway released him.
For the second time in a matter of months, Sandle had been cut.
"I'm all back to the same emotions," Sandle recalled.
This time, Sandle was better prepared for the emotions that came with being released. He had lived through it once already.
Once he returned home to Florida, Sandle went to the doctor to have his hand examined. The diagnosis explained everything. His hamate was broken. For the first time since the injury, everything made sense.
"It was kind of like a sense of relief," Sandle explained. "It's like, OK, I got released, but it wasn't because of my ability, it was just because my hand was broken."
The injury meant Sandle would undergo the first surgery of his life. It also meant stepping away from baseball for an extended period for the first time in his career. He called the process challenging.
Back home in Florida, Sandle spent the first few months of his recovery with his hand wrapped and strict instructions from doctors not to exert himself. For someone accustomed to competing nearly year-round, the inactivity became maddening.
"I was walking laps around my pool in the backyard," Sandle said. "Just going crazy."
Eventually, the large cast made way for a smaller brace that allowed him a little more freedom. But he still couldn't work out, lift weights or begin preparing for another season of baseball.
Then came September 1. After months of waiting, Sandle was finally cleared. He remembers returning to the gym and doing "every single exercise I had ever learned."
Pull-ups, push-ups. Anything he could think of. He was sore afterward, but he also felt like himself again.
Throughout the rehab process, Sandle leaned heavily on his family and friends back home in Florida.
One of those friends was David Maberry.
Long before they became teammates in Gateway, Sandle and Maberry were two baseball players from neighboring towns along Florida's panhandle. Sandle grew up in Navarre. Maberry was raised roughly 20 miles away in Fort Walton Beach.
When Sandle returned home to recover from surgery, Maberry was there. The two worked out together throughout the offseason, and eventually, the friendship helped open another door in professional baseball for Sandle.
Maberry was close with then-ThunderBolts manager Bobby Jenks and told him about Sandle. Jenks and Sandle talked on the phone, and in November of 2024, Jenks signed Sandle to play in Windy City.
Sandle's first memory of ThunderBolts camp isn't a home run or a great play in the field. It was the cold.
He remembers arriving for his first practice with the ThunderBolts on a chilly spring day. Then, after practice ended, he headed to the clubhouse for a shower.
There was no hot water.
Under different circumstances, it might have bothered him. But after being released twice in the span of two months and spending months recovering from a broken hand, a cold shower hardly registered.
He made the team a few weeks later. This time, baseball finally started going his way again.
The outfielder hit .275 with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs during the 2025 season and was named a Frontier League All-Star. In Sandle's mind, it had little to do with mechanics.
"I think it was just the buy-in to the work that I had put in," Sandle said. "It wasn't really anything I was doing mechanically, I think it was all mental."
Sandle said he played more freely than he ever had before during that 2025 season. After all, he had already experienced the worst that professional baseball could throw at him. The fear of failure no longer carried the same weight.
Now, in 2026, Sandle is once again playing some of the best baseball of his career. For Sandle, the early success has served as validation.
"It's nice to see that the work that I put in over the offseason is working right now," Sandle said. "I'm just working on staying on the same track, just being consistent and showing up every day. It's a long season, so just bring it down week by week."
As the second-oldest player on the ThunderBolts' roster, Sandle knows he has become one of the team's veteran leaders. His teammates joke with him about it - his age -but his leadership style is less about speeches and more about setting an example.
After everything he's endured over the past few years, Sandle understands that success in professional baseball can disappear as quickly as it arrives.
So he keeps showing up. He keeps working. And if he could speak to the version of himself who was released for the second time in less than three months back in 2024, the message would be simple.
"Keep going, no matter what. Even if you don't have a direction and you don't know exactly what you want to do, keep going every day," Sandle said. "It can get lonely and frustrating when things don't go your way, but just keep going."
Frontier League Stories from June 22, 2026
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- "Keep Going, No Matter What": Michael Sandle Fights Through Adversity - Windy City ThunderBolts
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