Joe Musgrove

Joseph Anthony Musgrove

Bats Right, Throws Right
Height 6' 5", Weight 225 lb.
High School Grossmont High School
Debut August 2, 2016

Born December 4, 1992 in El Cajon, CA USA

Biographical Information[edit]

Joe Musgrove was a supplemental first-round pick in the 2011 amateur draft.

Musgrove was timed at 98 mph in high school, with a sinker in the 90-92 mph range and a sharp curveball. He had a commitment to San Diego State University. The Toronto Blue Jays took him with the 46th pick of the 2011 draft (Baseball America had rated him as the 90th best prospect in the draft), their third pick following Tyler Beede and Jacob Anderson. He signed for a $500,000 bonus, one of the first high picks to sign. The scout was Dan Cox.

Musgrove made his pro debut with the GCL Blue Jays on July 13th against the GCL Pirates. He lasted 1 2/3 innings in his start, allowing two hits, one walk and one run while striking out one. In his first season of professional ball, he also pitched for the Bluefield Blue Jays, going a combined 1-1, 4.01 in 9 games. Baseball America ranked him as the 15th-best Gulf Coast League prospect, between Alen Hanson and Ethan Stewart. He was back at Bluefield in 2012 and had pitched only twice when he was included in a blockbuster trade with the Houston Astros on July 20th. He was shipped with Francisco Cordero, Ben Francisco, Carlos Perez, David Rollins, Asher Wojciechowski and a player to be named (Kevin Comer) for David Carpenter, J.A. Happ and Brandon Lyon. He allowed 7 runs in 9 innings for the Greeneville Astros following the deal, going 0-1.

He saw limited action for the 2013 GCL Astros, going 1-3 with a 4.41 ERA. He walked only four in 32 2/3 IP but allowed 32 hits. With the 2014 Tri-City ValleyCats, he really raised things a few notches, going 7-1 with a 2.81 ERA and 0.96 WHIP. He was 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA in the postseason, fanning 15 in 13 innings. He was named team MVP. He tied for first in the New York-Penn League in wins, tied Casey Meisner for second in whiffs (24 behind Marcos Molina), was 3rd in WHIP (after Molina and Tyler Eppler) and was 8th in ERA. Baseball America rated him as the loop's #16 prospect, between Sam Travis and Rowan Wick.

In 2015, Musgrove was better yet, going 12-1 with a 1.88 ERA and only 8 BB in 100 2/3 IP between the Quad Cities River Bandits (4-1, 0.70 in 5 G), Lancaster JetHawks (4-0, 2.40 in 6 G) and Corpus Christi Hooks (4-0, 2.20 in 8 G). He led minor league baseball in K:BB ratio, the best mark since at least 2006 in that category. He was 4th in the minor leagues in ERA. He was named the Astros' Minor League Pitcher of the Year and their #19 prospect. He began 2016 not quite as hot but still sharp with the Hooks (2-1, 0.34 in 6 G) and Fresno Grizzlies (5-3, 3.81). He started the 2016 Futures Game for the US team, retiring Manuel Margot, Raimel Tapia and Yoan Moncada in order. Amir Garrett relieved him in the second. They both fared well but some other members of the staff blew it late in a 11-3 loss.

A starter in the minors, Musgrove was outstanding in a relief appearance in his major league debut for the Astros against his former team, the Blue Jays, on August 2, 2016. He replaced starter Lance McCullers in the top of the 5th with Houston trailing 2-0 when McCullers had to leave because of elbow discomfort. Joe retired the first 10 men he faced and allowed only one hit and no runs in 4 1/3 innings in finishing the game. His 8 strikeouts tied the major league record for a pitcher making his debut in relief. He recorded his first career win on August 12th when he defeated the same Blue Jays, 5-3, pitching 7 innings. He had a particularly rough start against the Baltimore Orioles on August 18th, giving up 8 runs on 11 hits including 3 homers in 5 1/3 innings in suffering his first career loss, 13-5. His ERA jumped from 1.47 to 4.18 in one game. He went 4-4, 4.06 in 11 games that first season, all of his appearances being starts apart from his debut.

In 2017, Musgrove played the role of a swingman with the Astros, switching between the bullpen and the starting rotation depending on the needs of the team. In 38 appearances, he made 15 starts and pitched 109 1/3 innings in going 7-8, 4.77. He also picked up 2 saves and struck out 98 batters against just 28 walks, making him a much more valuable asset than his stat line would infer at first glance. He pitched in all three rounds of the postseason, picking up innings mainly in occasions when manager A.J. Hinch did not want to use his front-line hurlers. One exception was in Game 4 of the ALCS against the New York Yankees on October 17th, when he relieved Chris Devenski in a crucial situation in the 7th inning. Houston had entered the frame leading 4-0, but Lance McCullers had given up a monster solo homer to Aaron Judge to open the inning, and Devenski had then failed to hold things together, giving up a triple, a sacrifice fly and a walk to bring the potential tying run to the plate. Joe retired Starlin Castro and Aaron Hicks to get out of the inning with a 4-2 lead, but in the 8th, he gave up back-to-back singles to Todd Frazier and Chase Headley to open things up and gave way to Ken Giles, who allowed both inherited runners to score and eventually gave up the go-ahead run as well as New York came back to win the game, 6-4. However, he was credited with the win in the epic Game 5 of the 2017 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on October 29th. He was Houston's 7th pitcher of the game, entering in the top of the 10th with the score tied 12-12. He pitched a scoreless inning around a single by Andre Ethier and was credited with the win when his teammates managed to score a run against Kenley Jansen with two outs in the bottom of the inning. However, aside from the loss, he was also twice victimized for long balls by Joc Pederson, in Games 4 and 6, both homers padding the Dodgers' lead in games they went on to win.

On January 13, 2018, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates along with Michael Feliz, Jason Martin and Colin Moran in return for ace starter Gerrit Cole. He started the season on the disabled list because of a shoulder strain, then after a few minor league rehabilitation outings, was activated on May 25th. He had a great debut for his new team, as he pitched 7 scoreless innings and also collected his first career hit and scored a run in an 8-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. He ended up going 6-9, 4.06 in 19 starts, pitching 115 1/3 innings, a decent if not spectacular first season for the Bucs. In 2019, he was the team's best starter, going 11-12, 4.44 for a team that finished 30 games below .500. He led the Pirates in wins, with 4 more than anyone else, innings pitched (170 1/3), and strikeouts (157) and had the best ERA among the starters by over half a run. In 2020, he managed to lower that ERA to 3.86, the best of his career, but his run support faded away to nothing as he ended up 1-5 in 8 starts. he also posted the best strikeout rate of his career, with 12.5 Ks per 9 innings, but it was all for naught. He was one of the brighter spots in a terrible Pirate season.

On January 18, 2021, he was involved in a major trade for the third time of his career, this one a three-team affair that sent him to the San Diego Padres, with Joey Lucchesi going from the Padres to the New York Mets, and the Pirates picking up five different prospects, four from the Pads and one from the Mets. He was the third front-line starting pitcher acquired by the team that off-season, following Blake Snell and Yu Darvish, and while he was the least prominent of the three, he would soon write his name in history. In his second start for the Padres, on April 9th, he became the first pitcher in franchise history to pitch a no-hitter, defeating the Texas Rangers, 3-0. He was only one batter away from perfection, namely by hitting Joey Gallo with a pitch in the 4th inning. He walked no one and struck out 10 batters in breaking a streak of 8,206 games without a no-no that stretched over 52 seasons. On April 16th, he made his first appearance as a position player when he played two-thirds of an inning in left field in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. This was necessitated by the Padres having already used 9 pitchers in the game, when Tim Hill was unable to retire the Dodgers in the 12th, allowing 5 runs while retiring just one batter. To finish the inning, 2B Jake Cronenworth was sent to the mound for his first career pitching appearance, and Musgrove came off the bench to play left field, with Jurickson Profar moving from left field to second base. In a bizarre twist, Dodgers pitcher David Price hit a fly that Musgrove caught and which drove in the Dodgers' final run. On August 26th, he threw his second shutout of the season when he blanked the Los Angeles Angels, 5-0. He had been the Padres' most consistent starter all season, with their two other off-season acquisitions, Snell and Darvish, being inconsistent and offering a disappointing performance overall. He finished the year at 11-9, 3.18 in 32 games, 31 of them starts. His 2 shutouts led the National League and he struck out 203 batters in 181 1/3 innings as his team's most consistent pitcher.

He started 2022 very strongly. On June 3rd, he gave up just 1 hit in 8 innings in a 7-0 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. He did not gove up the hit until two were out in the 8th, when Kolten Wong hit a double. It was his 10th quality start in 10 starts, and his record improved to 6-0, 1.64 with the win as he was leading the National League in wins and ERA. On June 16th, a 6-4 won over the Chicago Cubs gave him 12 quality starts in 12 opportunities, making him the first pitcher to achieve this since Corey Kluber in 2018. That lowered his ERA to 1.59 and put the padres in sole possession of first place for the first time that season. He made the All-Star team for the first time that year and finished the season at10-7, 2.93 in 30 starts, with 184 strikeouts in 181 innings. He was at his best in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series against the New York Mets at Citi Field on October 9th as he gave up just one hit in 7 innings in a 6-0 win that eliminated the Mets; in fact, his opponents were so flummoxed by the movement of his pitches that they asked the home plate umpire to check him between innings, convinced he could only achieve thus by doctoring the baseball - but the umpires found nothing untoward. He made another good start in Game 4 of the Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing just 2 runs in 6 innings in a game the Padres won, 5-3. His final start of the postseason, in Game 3 of the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies resulted in a 4-2 loss, however, as he gave up 4 runs in 5 2/3 innings. Following the season, he went to Antarctica where he spent his 30th birthday on a charity mission to raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a cause that he has supported for some time. While there, he put his name in the record books on December 2nd by throwing a pitched timed a 86 mph, the fastest ever thrown on the continent (he had to wear appropriate cold-weather gear, which explains why it was well below his usual standards). This was not a spontaneous gesture as the trip required five months of advance planning and an environmental permit had to be obtained for the sporting event, under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty's Protocol on Environmental Protection. He accompanied a group of physically-challenged athletes who were sponsored by the Foundation, as well as by former teammate Sean Manaea. The adventure managed to raise $100,000 for the Foundation through sponsorships and donations.

On July 9, 2023, he won a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in which he hit four batters with a pitch in six innings, but did not allow a run. That tied the record for most hit batsmen in a winning start since 1901, and was only the third time over the past two decades that it had been done. He was overshadowed by teammate Blake Snell, who won the Cy Young Award that season, but still pitched very well in 17 starts, going 10-3, 3.05. Unfortunately, he did not pitch after July 28th due to inflammation in his right shoulder.

Sources: Baseball America, 2016 Astros Media Guide, MILB.com

Notable Achievements[edit]

NL All-Star (2022)
NL Shutouts Leader (2021)
200 Strikeouts Seasons: 1 (2021)
Won one World Series with the Houston Astros in 2017

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Joe Musgrove

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