Position player pitching continues for a second season

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It didn’t take long for the position players to return to the mound this season.

Saturday took a turn for the absurd when Oakland Athletics designated hitter Kendrys Morales toed the rubber against the Toronto Blue Jays. He made it out of the ninth inning with a run in a 10-1 loss. Ironically last season was his first pitching appearance as a Blue Jay against the A’s.

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis also made it on the mound in the last inning of the second game of a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins and gave up a home run to a former teammate. That makes it two Orioles that sent out a position player on the mound this season.

Across the league, seven have made appearances in the first four weeks, starting with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks sending backup catchers to the mound in the same game. Usually teams send position players on the mound in blowouts or extra inning games in a way to save bullpen arms.

There were times during batting practice where Marlins second baseman Starlin Castro would practice his pitching with third/first baseman Martin Prado catching. Miami manager Don Mattingly said that if that scenario were to come up, he would send whoever is available on the bench. 

“You’re not using that guy to win,” Mattingly said.

Cut4 does a great job chronicling the trend on Twitter in a funny fashion. 2018 was a record year for position players on the mound and it looks like 2019 is going to see an uptick.

Last year, I spoke with a few infielders across the National League who found themselves making their first appearances on the mound.

“Being a utility guy, that’s part of the job,” said Atlanta Braves infielder Charlie Culberson, who also mentioned that his pitching appearance was both fun and nerve racking. “I always pictured myself getting an inning.”

Culberson came in almost like he was auditioning to be a member of the pitching staff by throwing some gas from the get go. He hinted that this might only not be a fluke but also something to prepare for in the spring.

“I think if it’s gonna be more of a thing then they might get position players to work on it a little bit more. That way is it’s not as much of a joke to throw a position player out there lobbing balls across the plate. For me, I wanted to go out there and at least try, so I’m not gonna go out there and try to embarrass myself. I’m gonna go out there and try to somewhat do my best and make it not seem so bad because I’m a position player.”

Culberson also said that, “Teams have figured out how to use a bullpen.” The point of sending an infielder like Culberson to the mound in a blowout or an extra inning game is to save an important bullpen arm and not burn an inning in a lost cause. In an extra-inning game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies, former Marlin Kiké Hernandez was sent to the mound in the bottom of the 16th and ended the game by giving up a walk-off home run. But at least he was entertaining in the process. 

Marlins catcher Jorge Alfaro was a rookie in Philadelphia last year catching a fellow rookie making his first pitching appearance, only it was infielder Scott Kingery. It was in the tail end of a disastrous loss to the New York Mets.

“For guys who never pitched, it was kind of like throwing BP speeds,” Kingery said. “Hitters can really kind of tee off on it. So I was trying to throw under the hitter’s speed. To be honest it kind of came out slower than I thought it was going to be. I wasn’t trying to throw it that slow.”


Cincinnati Reds rookie Brandon Dixon had the most memorable appearance on the mound when he struck out American League MVP candidate Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians. Dixon threw a hybrid of a changeup, curveball and softball pitch and Ramirez lost his bat during the swinging third strike.

“I was just throwing soft,” Dixon said, “as soft as I could up there and hoping to get strikes and I got three in a row. I was pretty shocked. I definitely didn’t go into that thinking I was going to strike him out.”

The results of throwing in a player who throws but never pitches on the mound has a mix bag in terms of results. Rarely does it result in a strikeout. Best case scenario are ground outs while worst case is a barrage of homers.

“It’s tough because you know it’s not going to be anything you can’t hit,” Kingery said, “and you get super excited when you see it coming slow and you try to do too much and you end up popping it up or grounding out.”

The Marlins pitching has been solid enough that something like this may not happen at all this season. We were close a week ago when they played 15 innings with the Phillies. The Marlins had Chen available to put an end to that game but maybe it would’ve been better to see Castro actually try those warmup pitches out. Only time will tell.

 

Tony Capobianco is also familiar with dual roles, as a photographer and writer for Five Reasons Sports and Dolphin Maven

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