The Washington Nationals announced Monday that they are calling up Ben Braymer, a former pitcher for the Auburn Tigers, who will take on a bullpen role for the club.
Braymer, 26, is the second former Auburn pitcher to be called up this season, after Casey Mize made his debut for the Detroit Tigers earlier in August.
The southpaw, originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, will be the 53rd Auburn player to make it to The Show. For current Auburn head baseball coach Butch Thompson, he is the 16th pitcher to make it to the big leagues.
This year marks the first time in 12 years that more than one former player for Auburn has made their major league debut in the same season.
The Nationals first selected Braymer in the 18th round of the 2016 MLB draft. The scouting-focused publication Baseball America rated him the 24th best prospect in the Nats’ system entering the 2020 season.
Braymer pitched one season while at Auburn. He transferred there after spending his first two college years at LSU-Eunice.
In his lone season on The Plains, he went 4-4 with a 3.56 ERA over 21 appearances, striking out 47 batters in 48.0 innings pitched.
MLB.com reports that the Nationals have “been impressed by his outings” at the team’s alternate training site where players in an organization who are not on the major league roster are being kept during the COVID-19 altered season.
As a member of the bullpen, Braymer has not been given an exact date when he will make his debut, but it is likely to come this week as the Nationals take on the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox in coming days.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
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