Chris Stratton

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Christopher Lee Stratton

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Biographical Information[edit]

Chris Stratton was a first-round pick in the 2012 amateur draft.

Stratton was 10-1 with a 1.95 ERA and struck out 98 in 71 1/3 IP as a high school junior, winning All-State honors. As a senior, he was again All-State, going 7-2 with a save, 1.09 ERA and 113 K in 70 1/3 innings. As a college freshman at Mississippi State University in 2010, he posted a 5-3, 5.29 record. He put up similar numbers at 5-7, 5.21 as a sophomore, fanning 76 in 76 innings. He tied for second in the Southeastern Conference in losses. In summer ball, he was 1-1 with a 2.18 ERA for the Harwich Mariners as they won the Cape Cod League title. His junior year at Mississippi State, he made major strides, going 11-2 with a 2.38 ERA, a .211 opponent average, .99 WHIP and 127 strikeouts in 109 2/3 innings. The San Francisco Giants took Stratton with the 20th pick of the 2012 draft, the third SEC player taken that year after Mike Zunino and Kevin Gausman. He soon signed for a reported $1.85 million bonus and made his pro debut with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes on July 15th.

On April 11, 2018, Stratton defeated the San Diego Padres, 7-0, giving up just one hit in 7 innings. That hit turned out to be the sole one for the Padres that day, as Derek Law, who pitched the final two innings in relief, did not allow any. What made this very unusual was that it was pitcher Clayton Richard who got the hit, and in a rare pinch-hitting appearance. He batted for starter Bryan Mitchell in the 3rd, and after getting his hit went back to the bench as Jordan Lyles took over on the mound. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in history that the sole hit for a team had been achieved by a pinch-hitting pitcher. He went 10-10, 5.09 that season, recording his first career complete game in a 2-0 two-hit shutout of the Colorado Rockies on September 14th. He pitched 145 innings that season, which would turn out to be a career high by a wide margin as he was moved to the bullpen the following season.

In 2019, he started the season with the Los Angeles Angels after being traded for Williams Jerez at the end of spring training. he made 5 starts in 7 appearances for L.A., going 0-2, 8.59 and on May 11th was sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates after being designated for assignment. The Bucs decided to turn him into a full-time reliever and he pitched a whole lot better after the switch, going 1-1, 3.66 in 28 games with 47 strikeouts in 46 2/3 innings. In 2020, he pitched 27 times out of the bullpen for a terrible Pirates team, which may not seem like much but was actually the third-most in the National League during the pandemic-shortened season. He went 2-1, 3.90 with 39 strikeouts in 30 innings. In 2021 he continued to do well, going 7-1, 3.63 in 68 appearances and recording 8 saves, the first of his career since he had picked up one back in 2017 with the Giants. He continued to strike out over a batter per inning, in this case 86 in 79 1/3 IP. In 2022, he was 5-4, 5.09 after 40 appearances when he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals on August 2nd alongside starter José Quintana in return for Johan Oviedo and Malcolm Nunez. He did very well with the cards, picking up 5 wins and no losses in 20 outings the rest of the way, to go along with a very good ERA of 2.78. He had been acquired to give the bullpen additional depth during the postseason, but the Cards suffered an unexpected early exit at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies, being swept in two games in the Wild Card Series, and he never got to pitch.

In 2023, the Cardinals collapsed completely, falling out of the postseason picture within a couple of months, and by the time the trade deadline was looming, they were looking to trade some of their veteran pitchers in order to acquire some prospects. On July 30th, they dealt three different pitchers, hard-throwing reliever Jordan Hicks, starter Jordan Montgomery, and Chris. Montgomery had also been acquired at the same time a year earlier, and the two were packaged together to the Texas Rangers in return for P John King and two prospects, P Tekoah Roby and IF Thomas Saggese. At the time of the trade, Stratton was 1-1, 4.36 in 42 games.

Notable Achievements[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Alyson Footer: "Stratton zeroing in on spot in rotation", mlb.com, March 12, 2018. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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