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Several Former Mountaineers Listed on MLB Camp Rosters
Major League Baseball will look very different in 2020 but six former Mountaineers will have an opportunity to have an impact on the abbreviated season.
MLB teams are able to maintain a 60-player pool split between their big league facilities and an alternate site. The most veteran Mountaineer to land on one of these rosters is Jedd Gyorko, who will be competing for a starting job with a new team.
He is listed among the top group for the Milwaukee Brewers after signing a new contract with the organization earlier in the spring. He battled injuries throughout the 2019 season, hitting .174 with two home runs and nine RBI’s split between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The only other position player from West Virginia to make a 60-man roster for the 2020 season is Kansas City Royals first baseman Ryan McBroom. He will be fighting to make his first opening day roster after making his Major League debut in 2019. McBroom made 23 appearances for the Royals after his call-up, hitting .293 with six RBI’s.
Coming off of a season where he became the first Mountaineer to make an MLB All-Star team, left-handed pitcher John Means is back in camp with the Baltimore Orioles. He solidified a spot in the Baltimore rotation after an early season call-up last season and thrived with 3.60 ERA with 121 strikeouts in 155 innings pitched.
The last former WVU player who could make an opening day roster is Reds right-handed reliever David Carpenter. Carpenter took a winding path to the majors, playing catcher in college before converting to the mound as a minor leaguer in 2008.
He spent parts of four years in the Show from 2012 to 2015 but had not pitched at the highest level since then and was entirely out of baseball for the duration of the 2018 season. An opportunity with the Texas Rangers presented itself in 2019 and he made four major league appearances before signing with Cincinnati this offseason.
While not likely to make their big league debuts in 2020, prospects Alek Manoah and Michael Grove will be in camp with the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers respectively. The last two Friday night starters for WVU are the top two prospects to come out of Randy Mazey’s program and their organizations have decided to give them extra time to develop this year.
Major League Baseball will return next month and it seems likely that at least four Mountaineers will have the chance to take the field on Opening Day.