Kieran Lovegrove

Kieran Lovegrove

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 185 lb.

• High School Mission Viejo High School

• Born July 28, 1994 in Johannesburg, Gauteng South Africa

BR minors page

Biographical Information

Kieran Lovegrove has pitched in the minors.

Lovegrove was born in South Africa and moved to California at age 5. While in high school, he started a non-profit with his family to get baseball equipment to poorer countries like his native South Africa. The Cleveland Indians chose the hard-throwing (his fastball peaking at 94 mph) right-hander in the third round of the 2012 amateur draft, the 111th pick overall. The scout was Jason Smith. In his first summer with the AZL Indians, he was 0-2 with a .318/.384/.432 opponent batting line and 5 wild pitches in 21 innings.

Kieran represented the country of his birth in the 2013 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers, though he had a higher ERA than all but one of his teammates. In his first outing, he entered with a tight 2-0 deficit against Israel in the top of the 8th, replacing Hein Robb. He retired Nate Freiman and Cody Decker but Shawn Green singled, then Lovegrove walked Josh Satin and hit Jack Marder. Carl Michaels relieved and allowed all three of the inherited runners score to blow the game open. The Johannesburg native still got the call for South Africa's semifinal match against Spain. He went 1-2-3 in the first. In the second, things unraveled. He gave up a single to Bárbaro Cañizares then made an error on a pick-off attempt. The teenager walked Yunesky Sanchez; after a bunt, he plunked Gabe Suarez, then served up a two-run single to Yasser Gomez. He hit another batter, Jesus Golindano, and walked Engel Beltre to force in a run. Jared Elario replaced him and allowed one of the inherited runners to score. Kieran wound up with the loss. That left Lovegrove with 3 hits, 3 walks, 3 hit batsmen and 7 runs allowed in 2 innings in the event for a 31.50 ERA. He tied Michal Sobotka and Charlie Labrador for the most runs allowed (7) in all four Qualifiers, but was the only hurler to give up 7 earned runs (Sobotka of the Czech Republic was second with 6). He also tied for the most hit batsmen in all the qualifiers, even with Estevenson Encarnacion (also in the Indians chain), Lincoln Holdzkom and Nattapong Meeboonrod. Among hurlers with one or more inning pitched, only Encarnacion and Markus Solbach had worse ERAs.

He was named to the World Team for the 2018 Futures Game.

In 2021 Lovegrove came out as bisexual. In 2024 he announced on Instagram that he was planning to move to Germany as he said he felt as though he no longer saw a future in the United States.

Sources

• 2013 Indians Media Guide
• ESPN
• 2013 WBC Qualifiers