Skipping Triple-A Part of Baseball’s New Normal
Analysis: A whopping 61 players have made their big league debuts this year despite never spending time at Triple-A.
Cleveland’s Triston McKenzie was just 5 years old when Miguel Cabrera made his major league debut in 2003.
The right-hander grew up in South Florida and watched Cabrera’s rise to stardom with the Marlins. So, when McKenzie made the former Triple Crown winner and two-time MVP his first big league strikeout victim in his very own debut on Aug. 22, it was a huge deal for the 23-year-old.
Roughly 17 years separated McKenzie’s introduction to The Show from Cabrera’s, but their debuts had something in common: Neither guy played a single game at Triple-A before arriving on the big league scene.
The biggest difference, of course, is that there was a Triple-A for Cabrera to go to in 2003 had the Marlins deemed that necessary. As the pandemic continues, no minor league baseball of any kind is being played in 2020 outside of what unofficially happens at alternate sites, thus making it increasingly common for players like McKenzie to skip what is typically the last rung on a ballplayer’s developmental ladder.
It is not completely unheard of for a player to jump from Double-A to the majors, but of the 141 big league debuts that had taken place in 2020 prior to Aug. 25, 61 were made by players who never played Triple-A baseball. That’s a lot.
Of those 61, six never played at Double-A, either. Four previously played professionally in their native Japan or Korea. It’s not uncommon for players from those countries to skip the minor leagues altogether.
This trend of debuting before playing at Triple-A stems from a combination of factors, including the aforementioned lack of minor league affiliate play in 2020, the limited 60-man player pools teams must choose from – 40-man roster complications leave even fewer options – expanded MLB rosters, the compressed and ever-changing MLB schedule, and a barrage of injuries across baseball. In some cases, the coronavirus itself has had a more direct impact. McKenzie, for example, was promoted when Cleveland needed a starter after Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac were demoted for violating safety protocols, among other problematic choices. The Marlins, meanwhile, have a firm grasp on the MLB lead for debuts made by players who never played at Triple-A after the team suffered through an outbreak earlier this season.
It should come as no surprise that pitchers overwhelmingly lead the 61-man group of players who debuted despite zero AAA experience. Hurlers accounted for 43 of the call-ups, a testament to the grueling 60-game schedule MLB is constantly being forced to adjust, often by adding so many doubleheaders that it feels like the 50s again. Teams desperately need all the fresh arms they can get, especially with the injury bug biting baseball hard.
Outfielders (all three spots were combined) and catchers tied for second with six debuts apiece.
For multiple reasons, it’s not ideal for teams to be forced to call all these players up so soon in a lot of cases. For fans of the game, however, it should be considered one of the cooler parts of this incredibly weird and dubious season. Getting to watch top prospects like McKenzie, Casey Mize, Sixto Sánchez and Joey Bart, among others, months or years sooner than expected is fun. We could all use more fun these days, Major League Baseball included.
For the players, it’s an opportunity. Generally speaking, a player wants to start his service time clock as soon as possible. In a more feel-good-story-kind-of-example, someone like Rangers pitcher Kyle Cody went from never pitching above High-A and missing the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery to striking out the side in his MLB debut on Aug. 21. That’s objectively awesome, and it likely never would have happened in 2020 under normal circumstances.
So rarely have the two parts of that last sentence been combinable this year when it comes to baseball. The hope is that most of the trends we’ve seen in the sport – in all sports – are not here to stay. These call-ups that would have previously been considered premature, however?
That’s one part of baseball’s new normal that isn’t so bad.
Gary Phillips is a reporter, writer and editor for hire. He has written for The Athletic, Sporting News, USA Today Sports, Bleacher Report and Yankees Magazine, among others. He can be reached at garyhphillips@outlook.com.
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