2020 will be remembered for many things.
Add the year of the Indiana baseball pitcher to the mix.
Former IU ace Jonathan Stiever will make his Major League Baseball debut on Sunday as first reported by James Fegan of The Athletic. He will become the third former IU pitcher to make his first appearance in the MLB this season.
Stiever was expected to pitch for the White Sox AA affiliate in Birmingham before the the minor league season was canceled. Now he has made his way to Chicago.
Stiever will take the hill at 2:10 p.m. ET when the White Sox host Detroit at Guaranteed Rate Field.
The 6-foot-2 Stiever was selected in the 5th round of the MLB Draft by the White Sox in 2018. He was the 138th overall selection. Stiever spent his first season after college at Great Falls in the rookie league. In 2019 he made two stops at the single-A level with Kannapolis and Winston-Salem.
During his two seasons in the minor leagues Stiever has a 10-11 record with a 3.59 earned run average. A power pitcher with a plus fastball that can overwhelm hitters, Stiever had 193 strikeouts in 173 innings pitched during 2018 and 2019.
Stiever has never pitched above the A level, but he did post an impressive 2.15 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 28.0 percent strikeout rate in 12 starts for his highest level at Winston-Salem.
He has been widely regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in the White Sox system since his performance at Winston-Salem, but few expected Stiever would be starting in the big leagues this soon.
While his MLB debut will be a major jump from the A level, Stiever has been with the White Sox taxi squad in Schaumburg, Ill. since July where he has been training with hitters that are similarly on the cusp of making it to the Chicago squad.
The 23 year old Stiever hails from Cedarburg, Wisconsin. For the 2018 season at IU he compiled a 5-6 record and a 3.41 earned run average. He led the Big Ten with 97 strikeouts and earned first team All-Big Ten honors.
Stiever will join the Giants’ Caleb Baragar and Kyle Hart of the Red Sox as former IU pitchers that made a MLB debut in 2020.
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