Tampa Bay Rays: Brendan McKay debuts at the plate

Tampa Bay Rays two-way player Brendan McKay made his first major league start as a DH in last nights game against the Baltimore Orioles.  

Two-way phenom Brendan McKay made his long-awaited debut at the plate for the Tampa Bay Rays (49-36).  Despite going 0-4 at the plate there were some good signs that the two-way player is here to stay.

McKay’s debut at the plate as mentioned above was definitely not as good as his debut on the mound.  He threw 6 innings of shutout baseball allowing 1 hit and striking out 3 against the Texas Rangers (46-38).

The one thing I liked about McKay’s at-bats is that he didn’t strike out once, but made contact each time.  I think that goes a long way to show what kind of hitter he is.  In AAA ball at Durham, he was slashing .265/.400/.551 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI’s in 15 games.

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Also in Durham, he was 1-0 with a 1.08 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 25 innings pitched.  He is providing the baseball world with the two-way player template.  The crazy thing is he is not the only two-way player in the Tampa Bay Rays organization.

Currently waiting in the minor leagues as their shortstop and relief pitcher, Jake Cronenworth.  Now of the two, Cronenworth is by far the more polished hitter.  He is slashing .333/.420/.536 with nine home runs and 38 RBI’s.  The only difference is he is a relief pitcher.

As such Cronenworth has a 0.00 ERA with 7 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings pitched.  This is a pretty crazy concept with him.  We have all seen the point where teams have to use position players on the mound when the bullpen is depleted.  The most recent example is the San Francisco Giants (37-47) with Pablo Sandoval.

How would it be to have a short-staffed bullpen and you bring in your shortstop, who is actually a relief pitcher to give you some innings and rest the others in your bullpen?  After that, he can still probably play the next day as your shortstop.

I think it’s awesome to have these two-way players in the league and I am rooting for them all.  With the success of Shohei Ohtani and McKay so far, they are the first of many to come after them.