A brief (recent) history of position players pitching

It appears 2014 is the Golden Age of position players pitching. A common scene in the minor leagues, the current trend towards protecting arms and making better use of bullpen pitchers explains the rising phenomenon.

Even if “phenomenon” is too strong a word, watching position players pitch is certainly phenomenal. Danny Worth threw an inning of mop up duty for the Tigers Thursday afternoon and it was nothing short of a delight. The utility infielder broke out his knuckleball and had the Rangers whiffing as his teammates cackled in the dugout, finding a positive during this blowout loss.

This season has already seen 11 position players toe the rubber and we aren’t even through May. Last year, 14 guys tried their luck on the hill. In 2012, the total was 12. We only have to look back as far as 2006 to find a year without a position player on the mound. It happened just once between 2005 and 2006 when Sean Burroughs got touched for 3 runs in a game that finished 20-1.

Few can match the bemused joy of the Worth knuckleball outing, 2013 already produced some rather spectacular position player turns. Drew Butera made many question his decision to stay behind the dish as he flashed mid-nineties heat in the first of his two relief stints this year.

Mitch Moreland of the Rangers made his mound debut earlier this month, another guy with big heat on his fastball who made the decision to stay in the field years ago as a Rangers prospect.

While most position player outings occur in blowouts with the game long ago decided, Chris Davis of the Orioles made his debut in an extra innings marathon between his Orioles and the Boston Red Sox just over two years ago.

Davis entered a tied game in the bottom of the sixteenth inning, hurling two frames and picking up the win as his O’s posted a three spot in the top of the 17th.

He struck out three batters, including Adrian Gonzalez

and Jarrod Saltalamacchia

before inducing a game-ending double play to seal the win!

Wilson Valdez got the win for the Phillies in a 2011 game. He didn’t protect a lead like Davis (the Phillies walked it off in the bottom of his inning), nor did he go on to hit 53 home runs the following year so he plays second fiddle to the enormous Oriole here.

No position player pitching piece is complete without mentioning Brooks Kieschnick. The man voted best baseball player in the history of the University of Texas (the place that produced Roger Clemens) bounced around baseball as a bit of a busted prospect before the Milwaukee Brewers used him a super utility player in 2003-2004, pinch hitting, playing some outfield and pitching in 74 ball games.

And, of course, without further ado, Jose Canseco in his famous turn as a baffling mop up duty pitcher who also managed to blow his arm out in the process. The Jose Canseco of position players pitching, as it were.