Gunnar Hoglund

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Gunnar Thomas Hoglund

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Gunnar Hoglund was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Competitive Balance Round A of the 2018 amateur draft, with the 36th overall pick. He was coming out of high school at the time, but the two sides were unable to come to an agreement and he went on to attend the University of Mississippi. In high school, he took his classes at Dayspring Academy, but competed for Fivay High School, where he also played basketball and was a position player when not taking the mound for the baseball team.

As a freshman in 2019, he went 3-3, 5.29 for Ole Miss, and was off to a great start in 2020, with an ERA of 1.16 and 3 wins in 3 starts, when the college season was ended by the Coronavirus pandemic. He was back as a regular starter for the school in 2021, but had to undergo Tommy John surgery. However, it did not really dim his draft prospects, as the Toronto Blue Jays selected him with the 19th pick in the 2021 amateur draft. Before he could make his professional debut, he was included on March 16, 2022 in a package of four players sent by the Blue Jays to the Oakland Athletics to acquire 3B Matt Chapman. Accompanying him to the Bay Area were 3B Kevin Smith and fellow pitchers Zach Logue and Kirby Snead. He made his minor league debut that year with the ACL Athletics, for two games, and also pitched once for the Stockton Ports of the California League, going 0-1, 2.25 in 8 innings.

He finally had some extended action in the pros in 2023, when he appeared with three different teams - Stockton, the Lansing Lugnuts of the Midwest League, and the Midland RockHounds of the Texas League. In 16 games, all starts, he was 2-5, 6.05, with 46 strikeouts in 61 innings, as the lack of recent game action was evident.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Keegan Matheson: "Blue Jays draft Gunnar Hoglund at No. 19", mlb.com, July 11, 2021. [1]
  • Thomas Williams: "Blue Jays roll the dice at MLB Draft, take RHP Gunnar Hoglund No. 19 overall", Yahoo! Sports, July 12, 2021. [2]

Related Sites[edit]