By Mushtaq Nizamdin

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Justin Maese looked up to his older brother. Carlos was a pitcher, too.

But college didn’t lead Carlos to a baseball career, so Justin chose a short cut.

The El Paso, Texas, right-hander took the jump to the pros straight after graduating from Ysleta High School and getting drafted in the third round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2015.

In three seasons with the Rookie League Blue Jays and Class-A Lansing and Vancouver, Maese went 14-9 with a 3.36 earned-run average. Now he is 22 and dealing with a roadblock of his own, working hard to recover from 2017 right-shoulder cartilage surgery.

Justin’s brother, now 29, bounced around several colleges and baseball programs in the United States, starting at Northwestern and finishing at Texas A&M. Carlos is now a youth program facilitator with the native American Tigua tribe in El Paso.

“I always looked up to him, he took the college route and his career ended in college,” Maese said. “I thought he was the best player ever, so growing up I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to go to college, too.’

“But when I got the chance to start professional right out of high school I told myself, ‘Take it.’ I know my brother wished he had that opportunity. … It was right there in front of me, so it was an easy decision.

“Seeing what he had gone through, I told myself if I could work with professional coaches at the age where I’m at, where I have more time to develop, that’s what I wanted to go with,” Maese said.

“I didn’t want to go to college. I just wanted to work with the best and be the best that I could be.”

There was another reason to turn pro as quickly as he did.

“Where I’m from people don’t really get a chance to leave,” he said. “It’s not a big city. It was a big deal back home. It was right there in front of me, so it was an easy decision.

“I told myself, if I could work with professional coaches at the age where I’m at, where I have more time develop, that’s what I wanted to go with.”

Maese said he understood that his real opportunity to reach the majors and make a living while playing the game he loves relied on surrounding himself with the right people.

Turning professional would allow him access to the highest level of coaching available, making his path a little more clear. And to become one of the few members of his community to garner a high level of success in sports.