Of the 23,434 men who’ve played Major League Baseball, only 190 have identified as Jewish.
Seattle Mariners reliever Trent Thornton isn’t among them, but he understands why people think he is. After all, a nickname like ‘The Big Dreidel,’ is pretty niche.
“Cal Raleigh started calling me ‘The Big Dreidel’ because I spin the ball,” Thornton told the Herald on Thursday, before the Mariners and Red Sox wrapped up their three-game series at Fenway Park. “I thought it was pretty clever, to be honest.”
There are some interesting nicknames in the Mariners clubhouse. Luke Raley is “Big Thunder.” Logan Gilbert, Mitch Garver is “Garv Sauce” and has a beer named after him in Minnesota. Pitcher Luis Castillo is “La Piedra” (Spanish for ‘The Rock), and because they also have a pitcher named Luis F. Castillo on the 40-man, he received the nickname “The Pebble.”
Logan Gilbert, doesn’t have a nickname. He has an alter ego. When he isn’t pitching, anyone who knows him says he’s the nicest person around. On the mound, he’s “Walter,” a fierce, terrifying competitor.
They aren’t all Raleigh creations. Former Mariners broadcaster Dave Sims, who’s now with the Yankees, coined Raley’s, and “Walter” dates back to Gilbert’s college ball days. But according to Thornton, Raleigh, whose own nickname is “The Big Dumper,” comes up with plenty.
“He’s probably got a nickname for every single guy on the team,” Thornton said. “He started calling me that in 2023 and it kind of stuck. And it’s got to be up there (with the most creative nicknames), because it’s not as traditional. Some people probably don’t even know what a dreidel is!”
Dreidels are four-sided spinning tops played with on Hanukkah, typically with candy as the game pieces that go in the ‘pot.’ Each side bears a Hebrew letter: Nun, Gimel, Hei, and Shin (or Pei in Israel) – and has a corresponding meaning in Yiddish.
Neither Thornton nor Raleigh are Jewish, but teammate Rowdy Tellez, who first played with Thornton on the ‘19-21 Blue Jays, is Jewish on his mom’s side. He grew up lighting Hanukkah candles and hearing his maternal grandmother speak Yiddish.
“He didn’t have that nickname when we were together in Toronto, but he spins it so well,” Tellez told the Herald. “I like it. It’s funny, because I bet you he’s never played dreidel. He probably doesn’t even know what the (letters) mean on it, either.”
Land on Nun (Nisht) and get nothing. Gimel wins the whole pot, while Hei yields half. Shin (or Pei) requires the spinner to fork over another piece.
Thornton thinks of himself as a ‘Friend of the Tribe,’ and is happy when Jewish baseball fans get a kick out of his nickname. However, he also said reporters and fans sometimes asked him about it in ways that make him feel uncomfortable. Cognizant of the fact that he’s a non-Jew with a Jewish nickname, he never wants to offend.
“Some people have come up to me and been like, ‘Why do they call you the Big Dreidel? You don’t look Jewish,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s kind of a weird comment to make,’” he said. “And my buddies back home started making dreidel t-shirts that they would wear, and I was like, ‘I’m not Jewish, I don’t want to do something wrong!’”