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Brett Phillips, David Fletcher, Brian Anderson, Ben Davis, Charlie Culberson, and Mark Lemke are all former Major League Baseball position players who tried to extend their careers by becoming pitchers. None of them panned out. Despite those failures, former MLB outfielder Tyler Naquin is still giving pitching a try.
The 34-year-old Naquin last played in the Major Leagues in 2023 – five games with the Chicago White Sox. He was third in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2016 after putting up a .296 batting average with 14 home runs. His best season came in 2021 when he batted .270 with 19 home runs and 70 RBI for the Cincinnati Reds. At no point during his eight-year MLB career did he pitch. In fact, the last time he pitched in a competitive setting was a Texas A&M scrimmage in 2010.
Now, however, he is in A-ball playing for the Lake County Captains, as a pitcher. “God gave me a really good arm, so I was like, ‘I feel disrespectful to the guy upstairs if I didn’t at least try it out,'” Naquin told The Athletic.
He got this shot after his agent reached out to the Cleveland Guardians, the team that drafted Naquin in the first round in 2012, and the team sent out a scout to watch him throw a bullpen. Since then, Naquin says he has spoken to numerous pros about pitching, including Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, and Shane Bieber.
So far this year, Tyler Naquin, the former left-handed hitting outfielder, has pitched in 27 games for Lake County and the Arizona Complex League Guardians. In 30.2 innings pitched, he sports a 6.16 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 29 walks. So there is obviously much work still to be done, despite his ability to reach 96 to 97 miles per hour on the radar gun.
“I’m a realist,” Naquin said, adding, “I’ve had a great career. I have. I’m not saying I haven’t. But there’s more, I believe. And now we’re here.”