Cal Mitchell

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Calvin David Mitchell

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Biographical Information[edit]

Cal Mitchell made it to the majors in 2022.

Mitchell's father had been a pitcher in college; when Cal couldn't throw strikes and wanted to be a hitter as a kid, they would learn swings from watching YouTube videos of Ken Griffey Jr., Adrian Gonzalez and other stars, and the younger Mitchell would practice them for hours on end. [1] He hit .369 with 11 homers and 34 RBI in 34 games as a high school senior and was first-team All-American by Rawlings-Perfect Game. [2] He was on the US junior national team; there was no U-18 Baseball World Cup that year. [3] The Pittsburgh Pirates took him in the 2nd round of the 2017 amateur draft, the 50th overall pick (between Gavin Sheets and Joe Dunand). He signed for a $1,357,500 bonus. The scout was Brian Tracy. [4]

He made his pro debut that summer, hitting .245/.351/.352 for the GCL Pirates. Baseball America rated him as Pittsburgh's #14 prospect. [5] With the 2018 West Virginia Power, he batted .280/.344/.427 with 29 doubles. He tied Yohel Pozo for 8th in the South Atlantic League in doubles and was 7th in average (between Nick Pratto and Casey Golden). [6] He was third in the Bucs chain in RBI, behind Will Craig and Logan Hill. He was named the SAL All-Star DH. [7] Baseball America moved him up to 8th on their list of Pirates prospects. [8]

Cal was up to the Bradenton Marauders by 2019. He was named MVP of the Florida State League All-Star Game after doubling twice. [9] He produced at a .251/.304/.406 clip with 15 homers and 64 RBI for the year. One of his dingers was a game-ending grand slam on July 17th. [10] He tied Brady Policelli for the FSL lead with 183 total bases, tied Demi Orimoloye for 5th in RBI, was 6th in dingers and was 9th in slugging (between Policelli and Moises Gomez). [11] He also led the league's right fielders in fielding at .977. [12] He was 8th among Pirates farmhands in homers (between Chris Sharpe and Hill), 7th in RBI (between Sharpe and Dylan Busby) and 7th in total bases (between Fabricio Macias and Ke'Bryan Hayes). He missed the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down the minor leagues.

While other teams were more aggressive, Pittsburgh decided to slow-walk its players at the start of 2021, leaving them generally where they would have been in 2020 had there been a season. He hit .280/.330/.429 for the Altoona Curve, driving in 61 runs. He was a late-season call-up to the AAA Indianapolis Indians, going 5 for 20 with a double, run and a RBI. He was 8th on the Pirates farm in RBI. He was 8th in the Eastern League in average, between Triston Casas and Ronaldo Hernandez. [13] The Bucs surprisingly left some mid-level prospects like Mitchell and Mason Martin off their 40-man roster that winter, keeping roster-filler middle relievers instead, a move that drew a fair bit of criticism. He was not exposed to the Rule 5 Draft, though, due to the lockout which ended up wiping out that year's draft, in which he could otherwise very well have been lost to another organization.

He began 2022 back in Indianapolis and did well (.307/.362/.500, 26 RBI in 34 G); they called up Jack Suwinski ahead of him due to Suwinski being on the 40-man roster, but when Daniel Vogelbach went on the IL and with Mitchell hitting well, he got the call to The Show. He immediately saw action, starting in right and hitting 8th against the Colorado Rockies on May 24th. He lined out against Kyle Freeland his first time up but singled the next to drive in Diego Castillo with Pittsburgh's only run of the day. His first homer came June 5th off Zac Gallen of the Arizona Diamondbacks and was the winning hit, breaking a scoreless tie in the 5th. On June 14th, he came up to bat against Miles Mikolas of the St. Louis Cardinals with two outs in the 9th in the second game of a doubleheader, with the veteran having yet to allow a hit in the game. He got to a 2-2 count before he pounded on a curveball, hitting hit to deep center field, just out of the reach of CF Harrison Bader's outstretched glove, for a double that ended Mikolas' no-hit bid just shy of the mark. The Pirates still lost the game, 9-1 (they had scored a run wihout the benefit of a hit in the 4th), for their ninth consecutive loss.

Sources[edit]

  1. ↑ 6/10/2022 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article by Jason Mackey.
  2. ↑ 2022 Pirates Media Guide, pg. 153
  3. ↑ USA Baseball
  4. ↑ 2022 Pirates Media Guide, pg. 153
  5. ↑ ibid.
  6. ↑ MILB.com
  7. ↑ Our Sports Central
  8. ↑ 2022 Pirates Media Guide, pg. 153
  9. ↑ ibid.
  10. ↑ ibid.
  11. ↑ MILB.com
  12. ↑ 2022 Pirates Media Guide, pg. 153
  13. ↑ MILB.com

Related Sites[edit]

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