Simeon Woods-Richardson

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Simeon Woods Richardson

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Biographical Information[edit]

Simeon Woods-Richardson was drafted by the New York Mets in the 2nd round of the 2018 amateur draft out of a high school in Texas. He pitched for two teams that season, going a combined 1-0, 1.56 in 7 games between the GCL Mets and Kingsport Mets, both at the Rookie-class level. In 2019, he started the year in the South Atlantic League with the Columbia Fireflies. After 20 starts, he was 3-8, 4.25 when he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays on July 28th. He and fellow prospect Anthony Kay were the return for All-Star starting pitcher Marcus Stroman. He finished the season with the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League, going 3-2, 2.54 in 6 starts.

He was unable to play any minor league ball in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down the minor leagues, but as one of the Blue Jays' prize prospects, he spent the year working out at the team's alternate training site in Rochester, NY alongside some major leaguers and other top prospects. He was rumored to be a possible call-up to the big league team in spite of his lack of pro experience - something that happened to C Alejandro Kirk, who was in a similar situation, but the Blue Jays did not pull the trigger.

He again impressed in spring training in 2021, but was still assigned to the AA New Hampshire Fisher Cats. He did not put up glowing numbers, going 2-4, 5.76 in 11 starts, but like the previous year, he had the sort of experience worth a fortune in development time when he was selected to be part of Team USA for both the 2020 Americas Olympics Qualifier and then for the 2020 Olympics themselves after the U.S. successfully qualified. In fact, he was in Tokyo with the team when on July 30th, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins along with another top Jays prospect, OF-IF Austin Martin, to acquire front-line starter José Berríos. Interestingly, he was not the first US Olympic team pitcher to go at the trade deadline, as Joe Ryan had just been traded. A third pitcher, Jeremy Reed, was traded while his wife was playing softball for the US squad. He went 1-1, 6.75 in 4 games for the AA Wichita Wind Surge after the trade.

When he made his major league debut for the Twins on October 2, 2022, he became the holder of the longest last name to appear in the majors, with 15 (not counting the hyphen); that beat the 14 letters of Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The letters almost formed a full circle around his uniform number, 78. In his debut, he gave up 3 runs on 3 hits in 5 innings against the Detroit Tigers and was charged with a 5-2 loss. He had split the season between AA Wichita and the AAA St. Paul Saints, going 5-3, 2.77 in 23 games, allowing just 77 hits in 107 1/3 innings while striking out 115 batters. His name record did not even last a year, as it was topped when Christian Encarnacion-Strand made his debut the following July. He pitched just one game in the majors in both 2022 and 2023, with a total of 9 2/3 innings over the two outings.

Simeon finally got an extended opportunity to pitch in the majors in 2024 when he clinched a spot in the back of the team's starting rotation in mid-April, and managed to hold on to it. While he was not dominant, he pitched well enough to give his team a chance to win every fifth day, which was all that was required from the rookie. On August 27th, he was part of an unusual record when his opponent on the mound for the Atlanta Braves was fellow rookie Spencer Schwellenbach - the two combined for the longest-ever last names by two opposite starters, with 28 letters, beating the previous high of 25. Neither pitcher featured in the decision as the Braves prevailed, 8-6.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Scott Chiusano: "The longest last name starting pitcher matchup ever is a true tongue twister", mlb.com, August 27, 2024. [1]
  • Do-Hyoung Park: "Woods Richardson encouraged by early returns", mlb.com, March 5, 2022. [2]
  • Do-Hyoung Park: "There's a new longest last name in AL/NL history", mlb.com, October 2, 2022. [3]

Related Sites[edit]

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