Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tyler Mahle broke through in 2020 with a strong season despite entering the 60-game, shortened campaign outside the rotation. He won't likely be outside the rotation in 2021.
After the Reds signed Wade Miley before the 2020 season, Mahle entered a Spring Training competition with Anthony DeSclafani, who was coming off a solid season himself, for a spot in the rotation. The Reds went with Miley and DeSclafani behind Trevor Bauer, Sonny Gray and Luis Castillo.
When injuries struck the Reds pitching staff, Mahle entered the rotation and went 2-2 with a 3.59 ERA in nine starts and 47.2 innings.
Mahle, 26, is 13-25 with a career ERA of 4.68 after struggling in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. In 2018, his first full season in the big leagues, Mahle sported 4.98 ERA and went 7-9. In 2019, his ERA slipped to 5.14 with a 3-12 record.
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Optimism returns to one of the team's former top pitching prospects as he is expected to be a mainstay in the rotation along with All-Stars Castillo and Gray.
Here are three things to know about Tyler Mahle.
Tyler Mahle threw a perfect game for the Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos
In the same season Mahle made his debut in 2017, he threw a perfect game for then Double-A affiliate Pensacola.
“Everything worked out and I mean there’s no way to really do it," Mahle told team representatives after the game. "You just have to go out there and it happens by chance.”
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Mahle needed just 89 pitches to complete the 1-0 win and perfect game against the then-Mobile BayBears, an affiliate for the Los Angeles Angels, which has now moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to become the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Yes, that's a real minor league team. The Reds, meanwhile, have since changed their Double-A affiliate to the Chattanooga Lookouts
At the time of the 2017 perfect game, Mahle was the No.12-ranked Reds prospect, according to Baseball America, and he improved his record to 4-0 with a 0.68 ERA.
He made is Major League Baseball debut a few months later in August, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-2.
He finished 2017 with a 1-3 record with a 2.70 ERA.
Tyler Mahle is from California
Mahle is from Westminster, Calif., which is in Orange County in Southern California.
He was a pitcher and infielder at Westminster High School and committed to UC Santa Barbara to play college baseball. But the Reds drafted him in the seventh round of the 2013 MLB Draft and he chose to sign.
Mahle's brother Greg is also a pitcher
When Tyler Mahle threw a perfect game against an Angels affiliate in Double-A, his brother was an Angel.
His older brother Greg, 27, was a 15th-round pick of the Angels in 2014. He made his MLB debut in 2016 with the Angels and had a career record of 1-0 with a 5.30 ERA.
Greg Mahle was released by the Angels following the 2019 season.
Greg Mahle, who played for UC Santa Barbara in college, pitched for the Toros de Tijuana last season.
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