Xzavion Rashan Curry (born July 27, 1998) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2022.
Amateur career
Curry was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina.[1] He attended Benjamin Elijah Mays High School in Atlanta, Georgia and Georgia Tech, where he played college baseball for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.[2] During the summer of 2018, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League.[3] In 2019, his junior year at Georgia Tech, Curry pitched 57+1⁄3 innings and went 4–2 with a 4.08 earned run average (ERA) and 66 strikeouts.[4]
Professional career
After his junior year, the Cleveland Guardians selected Curry in the seventh round of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft.[5] He signed with the Guardians, but did not play after signing and also did not play in 2020 after the minor league season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] He made his professional debut in 2021 with the Lynchburg Hillcats of the Low-A East and was promoted to the Lake County Captains of the High-A Central and the Akron RubberDucks of the Double-A Northeast during the season.[7] Over 19 starts between the three clubs, Curry went 8–1 with a 2.30 ERA and 123 strikeouts over 97+2⁄3 innings.[8] His ERA was sixth lowest in the minor leagues.[9] He returned to Akron to begin the 2022 season and was promoted to the Columbus Clippers of the Triple-A International League in late June.[10]
On August 14, 2022, Guardians manager Terry Francona announced that Curry would be promoted to the major leagues the next day to make his MLB debut as the starting pitcher in the second game of a double header versus the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field.[11] He debuted wearing number 71, which hadn't been worn by a Guardians player since Johnny Hodapp in 1929, the first year players wore jersey numbers. He pitched five innings and gave up eight hits, three earned runs, and one walk while striking out three in a 7–5 loss.[12]
Curry was initially optioned to Triple-A Columbus to begin the 2023 season.[13] However, after Triston McKenzie suffered an injury, Hunter Gaddis was moved into the rotation, and Curry took his spot in the Opening Day bullpen.[14] On April 3, he made his first appearance of the year, pitching five innings in relief, allowing two runs to the Oakland Athletics after Zach Plesac could not record an out in the second inning.[15]
References
- ^ "Xzavion Curry Stats, Fantasy & News". MLB.com. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
- ^ "Gwinnett grads will have a big impact for Georgia Tech baseball".
- ^ "Xzavion Curry". pointstreak.com. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
- ^ "Meisel's Musings: Roberto Pérez's renaissance, trade-deadline planning and Brad Hand's perfection".
- ^ "Georgia Tech's English, McCann, Thomas, Curry taken in draft".
- ^ "2020 Minor League Baseball season canceled". mlb.com.
- ^ "Indians' Xzavion Curry: Bumped up to Double-A".
- ^ "Allen, Curry ready for changing of the guard".
- ^ "2021 Minor League Baseball Stat Leaders, Champions & More".
- ^ "RubberDucks Return Championship Talent, Feature Top Guardians Prospects on 2022 Roster".
- ^ "Xzavion Curry, another rookie, is headed to Cleveland: Guardians takeaways". 14 August 2022.
- ^ "Guardians' Xzavion Curry: Yields three runs in debut".
- ^ "Guardians' Xzavion Curry: Optioned to Triple-A". cbssports.com. Retrieved 2023-03-23.
- ^ "Guardians' Xzavion Curry: In line for bullpen spot". cbssports.com. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
- ^ "Guardians' Xzavion Curry: Covers five innings". cbssports.com. Retrieved 2023-04-04./
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets bio