Xavier Ladel Scruggs spent parts of three seasons in Major League Baseball, then built a longer career overseas before transitioning into broadcasting. Today he’s a baseball analyst known for his work with MLB Network and SiriusXM, and to a new audience entirely, he’s one of 22 civilian contestants on NBC’s The Traitors: New Blood.
Xavier entered the game believing his years spent reading pitchers, tendencies and body language for a living would give him an edge at the Roundtable. That theory has already been tested. Xavier began the season as a Faithful, but the premiere secretly named him one of the show’s first two Accomplices, alongside 23-year-old marketing manager Katie Fites. The two helped carry out the season’s first murder before being told they’d have to compete directly against each other for a promotion to the third Traitor role.
For a full list of contestants, see The Traitors: New Blood cast, and for episode-by-episode coverage, see The Traitors: New Blood episodes.
Quick Facts
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Full name | Xavier Ladel Scruggs |
| Born | September 23, 1987 |
| Age | 39 (born September 23, 1987) |
| Birthplace | Whittier, California |
| Occupation | Baseball analyst, broadcaster, founder of Xtraordinary Athletes |
| Position | First baseman |
| College | UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
| MLB teams | St. Louis Cardinals (2014 to 2015), Miami Marlins (2016) |
| International teams | NC Dinos (KBO, South Korea), Leones de Yucatán (Mexico) |
| Season | The Traitors: New Blood |
| Original role | Faithful |
| Current Traitors role | Secretly selected as a Traitors Accomplice on night one; murdered in Episode 3 |
| Key connection | Katie Fites, fellow Accomplice and rival for the third Traitor role |
| Episode status | Murdered in Episode 3 (revealed at the Episode 3/4 breakfast); Accomplice. |
Early Life and Baseball Beginnings
Public reporting on Scruggs’ childhood is limited. He has said relatively little in interviews about his upbringing or family background beyond describing faith and family as central to his outlook. What is well documented is his path through Poway High School in Poway, California, in San Diego County, where he played first base, also pitched, and lettered in football in 2004.
The Seattle Mariners selected him in the 50th round of the 2005 MLB Draft. He did not sign, choosing instead to attend UNLV, a decision that set up the breakout college season that would define his path to professional baseball.
UNLV Baseball Career
Scruggs played three seasons for the UNLV Hustlin’ Rebels, batting a combined .328 with 34 home runs and 112 RBI over his college career. His junior year, in 2008, was the season that changed his draft outlook.
He hit .379 with 20 home runs and 65 RBI in 59 games, leading the Mountain West Conference in all three categories to win the conference’s Triple Crown. Baseball-Reference lists his fuller junior-year slash line at .379/.480/.749. According to UNLV’s program history, he was the first Rebel to hit 20 home runs in a season since 1989, and only the second player in Mountain West history to win the Triple Crown, joining Eric Nielsen.
The season earned him Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, NCBWA District VIII Player of the Year, UNLV Sportsman of the Year, and Louisville Slugger Second-Team All-American honors. One account credits UNLV assistant coach Mike Kirby with playing a significant role in his development at the plate. Off the strength of that season, the St. Louis Cardinals selected him in the 19th round, 575th overall, in the 2008 draft.
MLB Career
Scruggs signed with the Cardinals, reportedly for a $150,000 bonus, and spent several years working through the organization’s minor-league system, including stops with the Batavia Muckdogs, Quad Cities River Bandits, Palm Beach Cardinals, Springfield Cardinals and Memphis Redbirds. Over that stretch, he collected 928 hits and 180 home runs in 3,608 minor-league at-bats.
He made his major league debut on September 4, 2014, at age 26, appearing in 9 games that season and 17 more in 2015 as the Cardinals shuttled him between Memphis and St. Louis. Analysts have pointed to roster fit, rather than a lack of power, as his main obstacle to a bigger role; the Cardinals favored players with more defensive versatility, such as Mark Reynolds, for bench spots.
The Cardinals designated him for assignment in September 2015, and he signed a minor-league deal with the Miami Marlins that November. After hitting .290 with 21 home runs and 50 RBI at Triple-A New Orleans in 2016, the Marlins called him up that August. He hit his first, and to date only, major league home run reportedly on August 21, 2016, against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Across parts of three MLB seasons, spanning 115 games, Scruggs finished with a .227 average, one home run and 14 RBI.
Baseball Beyond MLB
Scruggs’ professional playing career outlasted his time in the majors by several years. He signed with the NC Dinos of South Korea’s KBO League after the 2016 season, reportedly on a one-year, $1 million contract, brought in, according to reporting at the time, to replace Eric Thames, a foreign hitter who had put up historic numbers for the club before returning to MLB.
He delivered immediately. In 2017, he hit .300 with 35 home runs, 111 RBI and a .997 OPS over 115 games. He followed that with 26 home runs and 97 RBI in 2018, reportedly re-signing with the Dinos for $1.3 million that year. Over two KBO seasons spanning 257 games, he hit .277 with 61 home runs, 208 RBI and a .906 OPS. He became a free agent after the 2018 season.
Scruggs played his final professional season in 2019 with the Leones de Yucatán in Mexico’s Liga Mexicana de Béisbol, widely regarded as the last stop of his playing career before he moved into broadcasting full time.
Life After Playing Baseball
Broadcasting and Media
Scruggs built a broadcasting career across several outlets through the early 2020s. ESPN identifies him as a baseball analyst who contributed regularly to Baseball Tonight, alongside College World Series and Little League World Series coverage. He also hosted The Bigs, described by ESPN as the first MLB player-to-player podcast, giving players a space to discuss their career journeys.
His LinkedIn lists an MLB Network analyst role running from March 2022 through August 2026, and he’s worked as a SiriusXM media personality since March 2021, co-hosting the weekday morning show The Leadoff Spot. As of March 2026, Scruggs said ESPN was no longer continuing his contract after roughly five years with the network, though he has continued to identify himself with MLB Network and SiriusXM.
Front Office Work With the Cardinals
In 2021, Scruggs spent a year back inside the Cardinals organization as the team’s diversity, equity and inclusion consultant in baseball operations, a role MLB.com described as an unusual one for a professional sports front office. The position was aimed at improving inclusion within the organization and supporting players navigating identity and culture within the game, drawing on Scruggs’ own experience playing internationally in South Korea and Mexico.
Founding Xtraordinary Athletes
Scruggs is the founder and CEO of Xtraordinary Athletes, reportedly launched around 2019. The company focuses on helping athletes and creators build a brand, a digital presence and an identity beyond their playing careers, through mentorship, workshops and transition planning. His stated goal is to challenge narrow stereotypes of athletes and help them create success and impact beyond their playing careers. No verified figures on the company’s revenue, valuation or client base are publicly available.
Xavier Scruggs on The Traitors: New Blood
Xavier entered the castle as one of 22 civilian contestants and, initially, as a Faithful. Host Alan Cumming selected Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams as the season’s first two Traitors, not Xavier. During the opening mission, Xavier took part with the wider group as they banked $50,000.
The season’s first major twist changed his trajectory almost immediately. Joe and Tomica were told to secretly choose two Faithfuls to become Accomplices, competing for a place among the Traitors. They selected Katie Fites and Xavier Scruggs. Joe described the two Accomplices as each bringing different advantages, specifically calling Katie “a great chess piece.” NBC’s accessible coverage doesn’t provide an equally detailed rationale for Xavier’s selection, so it shouldn’t be assumed he was chosen specifically for his sports background, public profile, or observational skills.
What Happened During the Accomplice Twist
Xavier and Katie were initially kept apart and didn’t know why they’d been singled out. They were then secretly brought into the first murder decision: Joe and Tomica considered Michael, Kim and Arisa before settling on Kim Daily. Katie and Xavier physically carried out the task, escorting Kim away from the group, where she was met by a masked “funeral director,” placed in a coffin, and sent off in a floating boat. Kim was revealed the next morning as the season’s first murder victim.
That means Xavier had already helped execute a Traitor-directed murder in Episode 1, without knowing Joe and Tomica’s identities himself, while the rest of the cast still believed they were dealing with an ordinary group of Faithfuls.
Episode 2 raised the stakes further. Joe and Tomica gave Katie and Xavier 24 hours to prove they deserved the season’s third Traitor spot: one would be recruited, the other would face murder. Their task involved retrieving one of two hidden “death warrants,” concealed inside copies of Crime and Punishment in the castle’s library and atrium, and delivering it to the Traitors without exposing their secret role to the Faithfuls. Acting suspiciously or being seen taking a book risked blowing their cover in front of the entire cast.
Xavier’s approach to that pressure was notably aggressive. Rather than simply completing the task quietly, he tried to make Katie look suspicious in front of Joe and Tomica while they evaluated both candidates, an attempt to demonstrate he could operate covertly, deflect suspicion, and outmaneuver a direct rival under real pressure.
That outcome is now resolved. In Episode 3, Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams recruited Katie Fites as the season’s third Traitor and murdered Xavier overnight (revealed at the Episode 3/4 breakfast), making him the season’s third elimination. He survived the first Roundtable, where Madeline Kostopulos was banished instead of him or Katie.
Xavier Scruggs and Katie Fites’ Accomplice Storyline
Katie Fites is Xavier’s defining early-game connection, not because of an alliance or friendship, but because the two were forced into direct competition by the same twist. Katie is a 23-year-old marketing manager from Jacksonville, Florida, while Xavier is a 39-year-old former MLB player and current broadcaster. Their different backgrounds only sharpen the contrast: one contestant leaning on people skills and adaptability, the other on years of professional observation and competitive experience.
Structurally, the two became rivals the moment Joe and Tomica set up the Accomplice twist as a one-or-the-other outcome. That doesn’t mean their relationship has been personally hostile; no on-screen evidence establishes a feud beyond the mechanics of the twist itself. What is confirmed is that Xavier chose to actively work against Katie once the pressure of the death-warrant task set in, trying to cast doubt on her in front of the two people deciding their fates.
The result is now confirmed: in Episode 3, Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams promoted Katie Fites to the third Traitor spot and murdered Xavier per the Accomplice rules, making him the season’s third elimination.
How Xavier Scruggs’ Baseball Career Shapes His Traitors Strategy
Xavier’s central pre-show claim wasn’t that he could detect lies outright. It was that professional baseball trained him to notice repeated physical habits, energy shifts and small changes in body language, and that those observation skills might translate into reading people inside the castle.
| Baseball experience | The Traitors equivalent |
|---|---|
| Reading pitcher tendencies | Reading contestant behavior |
| Watching adjustments | Watching changes in behavior |
| Studying opponents | Tracking player patterns |
| Performing under pressure | Handling Roundtables |
| Team environment | Social alliances |
| Competitive preparation | Strategic preparation |
These are parallels Xavier himself has drawn, not proven advantages. He’s also acknowledged the risk baked into his own approach: an analyst known professionally for reading and evaluating people could become an obvious target once other contestants realize how observant he is. He’s drawn an important distinction worth repeating: reading a professional athlete inside a structured competitive environment isn’t the same as reading a reality-show contestant who may be deliberately performing emotion, friendship or suspicion for strategic reasons.
Through Episode 2, no verified moment shows Xavier’s body-language reading correctly identifying a Traitor or shifting a vote. What has been demonstrated is a willingness to use social pressure directly, seen in his attempt to make Katie look suspicious during the death-warrant task, a tactic that has more to do with competitive instinct than with any specific observational read.
Personal Life
Xavier is married to Jessica Scruggs; the couple began dating in 2011 and married in December 2016. They have three children together: sons Zeke and Xander and daughter Zuri. Xavier has spoken publicly about fatherhood and has described faith and family as central to his outlook, though no verified direct quote ties a specific career decision to his role as a parent.
Where Xavier Scruggs Stands on The Traitors
Xavier’s game ended because of the Traitors’ own selection logic. He and Katie Fites were secretly chosen as Accomplices on the first night, helped carry out Kim Daily‘s murder, then competed for the single third-Traitor spot: each had to retrieve a hidden death warrant from a copy of Crime and Punishment in plain sight. Xavier played offense, quietly floating Katie’s name to other players in hopes of making her a less appealing recruit (both EW and Parade report this). Both Accomplices secured their warrants, so Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams chose. They read Xavier’s maneuvering as a warning sign of possible Traitor-on-Traitor violence and preferred Katie’s congeniality and ability to fly under the radar. Tomica told Katie, “I think that you’re lovely. People like you, and I think you’re gonna have to play on that. And we’re counting on you to fly under the radar,” with the confessional “we are excited to have Katie as our tiny traitor” (realityblurred). In Episode 3, they recruited Katie and murdered Xavier by proxy.
Xavier’s suspicion-seeding poisoned Katie’s game: Logan Smith picked up the thread and was murdered for it, and Shane Beatty later told Sherry Kuehl that both Xavier and Logan were eliminated after suspecting Katie.
In his exit interviews, Xavier said he was “frustrated, angry, disappointed” about being murdered: “I was extremely mad at the moment once I was murdered… I’m expecting to win! I’m not hoping to win by any means” (EW). He admitted he thought floating Katie’s name would show the Traitors he was “willing to do whatever it takes”; in hindsight, “my thought process is not going to be the same as the Traitors” (Parade/EW). His strongest Traitor suspect had been Joe Vanella; of Tomica Adams he said, “Tomica, I had no idea” (EW). At the first Round Table, he voted for Madeline Kostopulos rather than Victor Vollbrechthausen because “as an accomplice, I didn’t want to be seen voting for a Traitor” (Parade). And he left rooting for Katie Fites: “If I’m gonna lose, I wanna lose to the top dog, and I think that she could end up being the top dog” (EW).
| Episode | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1 | Entered as a Faithful; secretly chosen with Katie Fites as a Traitors Accomplice. |
| 2 | Helped execute Kim’s murder; began floating Katie’s name (“nervous energy”) to undercut her; retrieved his death warrant from Crime and Punishment in plain sight. |
| 3 | Passed over for the third Traitor spot in favor of Katie; murdered by Joe and Tomica per the Accomplice rules. |
FAQs
Who is Xavier Scruggs?
Xavier Ladel Scruggs is a former MLB and KBO first baseman turned broadcaster, born September 23, 1987, in Whittier, California. He’s now a baseball analyst, the founder of Xtraordinary Athletes, and a contestant on The Traitors: New Blood.
How old is Xavier Scruggs?
He is 39, born September 23, 1987.
Did Xavier Scruggs play in MLB?
Yes. He played parts of three seasons in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals (2014 to 2015) and Miami Marlins (2016), finishing with a .227 average, one home run and 14 RBI in 115 games.
What teams did Xavier Scruggs play for?
In the majors, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins. Internationally, he played for the NC Dinos in South Korea’s KBO League and the Leones de Yucatán in Mexico’s Liga Mexicana de Béisbol.
What does Xavier Scruggs do now?
He works as a baseball analyst and broadcaster, primarily with MLB Network and SiriusXM, and is the founder and CEO of Xtraordinary Athletes. He said in March 2026 that ESPN was no longer continuing his contract after roughly five years there.
What is Xtraordinary Athletes?
Xtraordinary Athletes is a company Scruggs founded, reportedly around 2019, focused on helping athletes and creators with branding, digital presence, and the transition to life after competitive sports.
Is Xavier Scruggs a Traitor or Faithful?
He entered as a Faithful and was secretly selected as an Accomplice alongside Katie Fites. In Episode 3, the contest was resolved: Katie was recruited as the season’s third Traitor and Xavier was murdered, becoming the season’s third elimination.
What is Xavier Scruggs’ role as an Accomplice?
He was secretly chosen by original Traitors Joe Vanella and Tomica Adams to complete covert tasks, including helping carry out the season’s first murder, while competing against Katie Fites for a promotion to Traitor.
Who is Xavier Scruggs paired with on The Traitors?
He’s paired with Katie Fites, a 23-year-old marketing manager from Jacksonville, Florida, as fellow Accomplice and rival for the third Traitor role.
What is Xavier Scruggs’ strategy on The Traitors?
He’s relying on observation habits developed during his baseball career, watching for behavioral patterns and energy shifts, while also showing a willingness to use social pressure directly against Katie during their Accomplice competition.
Is Xavier Scruggs still on The Traitors?
No. Xavier was the season’s third elimination, murdered overnight after Episode 3 and revealed at the Episode 3/4 breakfast. He survived the first murder and the first Roundtable.
