Austin Voth

Austin Lee Voth (born June 26, 1992) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Nationals drafted Voth in the fifth round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft. He made his MLB debut in 2018.

Austin Voth
Voth with the Nationals in 2018
Washington Nationals – No. 50
Pitcher
Born: (1992-06-26) June 26, 1992
Redmond, Washington
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
July 14, 2018, for the Washington Nationals
MLB statistics
(through 2020 season)
Win–loss record5–7
Earned run average5.11
Strikeouts99
Teams

Career

College

After graduating from Kentwood High School,[1] Voth played college baseball at the University of Washington for the Huskies from 2011 to 2013. In 2011 and 2012, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League, and was named a league all-star in 2011.[2][3]

Minor leagues

The Washington Nationals drafted Voth in the fifth round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft.[4][5] He made his professional debut that season with the Gulf Coast League Nationals in the rookie-league-level Gulf Coast League. That season, the Gulf Coast League Nationals finished their regular season with a record of 49-9 and an .845 winning percentage, the highest winning percentage for a full regular season ever achieved by a minor-league baseball team based in the United States.[6] The Nationals then won all three of their playoff games, defeating the Gulf Coast League Pirates in a single-game semifinal playoff and sweeping the Gulf Coast League Red Sox in the best-of-three league championship series, to become the 2013 Gulf Coast League champions.[7][8] Voth's contribution to the championship season was to appear in two games, starting both of them, giving up four hits but no runs or walks and striking out four in five innings of work.[9] During 2013, Voth also spent time with the Class A Short Season Auburn Doubledays in the New York-Penn League and the Class A Hagerstown Suns in the South Atlantic League.[10][11] Voth finished 2013 with a 1.75 ERA over 11 starts with 55 strikeouts in ​46 1⁄3 innings.[9]

Voth returned to Hagerstown to start the 2014 season. He was promoted to the Class A Advanced Potomac Nationals in the Carolina League in June 2014 and then to the Class AA Harrisburg Senators in the Eastern League in July 2014.[12][13] Voth spent 2015 with Harrisburg and for the 2016 season was promoted to the Class AAA Syracuse Chiefs in the International League.[9] The Nationals added Voth to their 40-man roster after the 2016 season, in which he posted a 3.15 ERA in 157 innings for Syracuse.[14] In the fall of 2016, he played for the Glendale Desert Dogs in the Arizona Fall League.[9] The Washington Post described him as "on the doorstep of the Nationals' rotation" during preseason spring training in 2017.[15]

However, Voth suffered a setback in 2017 when his velocity dropped sharply and his fastball fell into the mid-80s (mph), leading to a poor season in which he pitched to an overall ERA of 5.94 in 13 games with Syracuse (6.38 ERA), 10 with Harrisburg (5.13 ERA), and one with Auburn in which he gave up four hits, a walk, and three runs in two innings of work.[9][16][17] After peaking at eighth in the MLB Pipeline biannual ranking of prospects in the Washington Nationals system before the 2017 season, Voth was not ranked in Pipeline's top 30 in advance of the 2018 season.[18]

2018

After undergoing strength training during the 2017-2018 offseason,[16] Voth's fastball velocity rose to as high as 93 miles per hour (150 km/hr).[16] The improvement helped him get off to a strong start in the 2018 season with the Syracuse Chiefs; he started four games, posting a 0.96 ERA in 18​2⁄3 innings of work,[16] striking out 22 and walking only two,[16] and combining with three relievers to throw a no-hitter in a seven-inning game on April 18, 2018,[19] and his strikeouts-per-nine-innings for Syracuse rose from 5.7 in 2017 to 10.06 in 2018.[16] On April 29, the Nationals called Voth up to the major leagues for the first time, inserting him into their bullpen mix to deepen it a day after manager Dave Martinez was forced to use eight pitchers, including his entire bullpen, in an extra-inning game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.[20] Voth did not appear in the April 29 game against Arizona, however, and on April 30 the Nationals called up reliever Wander Suero from Syracuse to reinforce the bullpen and optioned Voth back to Syracuse without a major-league appearance, Martinez explaining that the Nationals wanted Voth to continue to gain experience as a starter by pitching once every five days in Class AAA games as part of the Chiefs′ starting rotation.[21] On June 18, when during the afternoon the Nationals completed a game against the New York Yankees that had been suspended due to rain on May 15 after ​5 1⁄2 innings and during the evening played a make-up game against the Yankees for a May 16 rainout, the Nationals again called Voth up, but they optioned back to Syracuse on June 19, again without him seeing any action.[22]

Voth made his major league debut at last on July 14, 2018, at Citi Field against the New York Mets. He gave up three runs after a succession of singles against him in the second inning, then appeared to recover before running out of steam in the fifth inning, in which he allowed four more runs before being lifted from the game. He took the loss as the Nationals were unable to recover from the seven-run deficit.[23] He was optioned back to Syracuse the next day.[24]

In 2018 he was 1-1 with a 6.57 ERA in four games (two starts).[25]

2019

In 2019 he was 2-1 with a 3.30 ERA in nine games (eight starts), in which he struck out 44 batters in ​43 2⁄3 innings.[26] The Nationals finished the year 93-69, clinching a wild card spot. The team eventually went on to win the World Series over the Houston Astros, their first championship in franchise history. Voth was not part in any postseason action but still won his first world championship.[27]

2020

In the shortened 2020 season, Voth was 2–5 with a 6.34 ERA in 11 starts while striking out 44 batters and walking 18 in ​49 2⁄3 innings.

References
  1. http://www.kentreporter.com/sports/kentwood-high-grad-voth-makes-mlb-debut/
  2. "#31 Austin Voth - Profile". pointstreak.com. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  3. "#31 Austin Voth - Profile". pointstreak.com. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  4. "Nats take Washington pitcher Voth to cap fifth round". Archived from the original on 2014-10-24. Retrieved 2014-10-23.
  5. Voth Drafted By Nationals In 5th Round Of MLB Draft
  6. Wagner, James, "Nationals GCL Team Sets a Minor League Record," washingtonpost.com, August 29, 2013.
  7. DiPietro, Lou, "Baby Bombers 2013 Playoff Log: One and Done for the GCL Yankees," yesnetwork.com, August 30, 2013
  8. Dykstra, Sam, "Nationals capture GCL championship," September 1, 2013
  9. Baseball Reference: Austin Voth
  10. Jake Johansen, Austin Voth are bright spots for Nats affiliate Auburn
  11. Cathcart on Voth's opponents: "Looked like they were swinging underwater"
  12. Nationals prospect Austin Voth gets on the fast track
  13. Voth puts on another show for P-Nats
  14. Janes, Chelsea (November 18, 2016). "Austin Voth, Rafael Bautista among five additions to Nationals 40-man roster". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
  15. Castillo, Jorge (March 11, 2017). "Introducing Austin Voth, now on the doorstep of the Nationals’ rotation - The Washington Post". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 30, 2017.
  16. Castillo, Jorge, "Nationals recall Austin Voth, option Austin Adams," washingtonpost.com, April 29, 2018, 1:00 p.m. EDT.
  17. Erickson, Luke (August 30, 2017). "Luke Erickson: Who they gonna call?". MASN Sports. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
  18. "MLB Pipeline releases new #Nats prospect rankings!". TalkNats. February 21, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. "4 pitchers hurl 7-inning no-hitter for Syracuse Chiefs". The Tribune. April 18, 2018. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  20. Reddington, Patrick (April 29, 2018). "Washington Nationals call up Austin Voth; option Austin L. Adams to Triple-A Syracuse". Federal Baseball. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  21. Castillo, Jorge, "Nationals recall Wander Suero, option Austin Voth a day after call-up," washingtonpost.com, April 30, 2018, 6:06 p.m. EDT.
  22. National Roster and Staff June 2018 Retrieved June 19, 2018
  23. Reddington, Patrick (July 15, 2018). "Nationals' starter Austin Voth takes loss in MLB debut, gets advice from Max Scherzer". Federal Baseball. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  24. "Nationals' Trevor Gott: Promoted from Triple-A". CBS Sports. July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  27. "Washington Nationals win 2019 World Series". MLB. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
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