After six years in the minor leagues, former Arkansas Razorbacks catcher Grant Koch is in the big leagues.
How long he stays there is an entirely different matter, but Koch made his Major League debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday. He reached base once, going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and a walk in the Pirates’ 10-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers in the second game of a doubleheader at Comerica Park.
Koch’s road to the majors is unorthodox — and certainly not one that resembles any of the hype and fanfare that awaited prized Pirates rookie Paul Skenes, the top pitching prospect in all of baseball and No. 1 overall draft pick last year whom Koch has been paired with in starts this season.
Skenes helped lead LSU to the 2023 National Championship in the College World Series. By contrast, Koch was part of a team that finished seventh in its division in the Triple-A International League.
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Koch has spent the past six years slowly working his way up through the Pirates’ system after being selected in the fifth round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft.
He’s a career .203 hitter in 313 games and batted .167 in 17 games this year with the Indianapolis Indians, Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate, before being added to the Pirates’ taxi squad recently.
The reason for Koch’s Major League debut? His strong relationship with Skenes, which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Noah Hiles detailed this week.
The 27-year-old Koch caught all seven of Skenes’ starts this season at Indianapolis. With the benefit of injuries at a position where there’s traditionally little depth, and a bit of dumb luck, the former Razorback nonetheless made it to the big leagues.
“He’s the whole picture as a catcher,” Skenes told the Post-Gazette. “We got to know each other really well in Indianapolis this year. We got to know each other a little bit during spring training, too. I think he and I have clicked probably as well as any catcher I’ve thrown to.”
Skenes’ ERA stands at 2.45 through four starts with the Pirates. He improved to 2-0 after throwing six strong innings Wednesday, holding Detroit to two runs on three hits while striking out nine batters and walking one.
Koch, a native of Fayetteville who attended Fayetteville High School, played three years for the Razorbacks between 2016-18. He hit 22 home runs in an Arkansas uniform.
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