Gavin Blaine Stone (born October 15, 1998) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2023.
| Gavin Stone | |
|---|---|
 Gavin Stone before a game with the Dodgers | |
| Los Angeles Dodgers – No. 35 | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: October 15, 1998 Lake City, Arkansas, U.S. | |
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| May 3, 2023, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| MLB statistics (through June 20, 2024) | |
| Win–loss record | 9–3 |
| Earned run average | 4.70 |
| Strikeouts | 85 |
| Teams | |
| |
Career
Amateur career
Stone attended Riverside High School in Lake City, Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas, where he played college baseball for the Central Arkansas Bears.[1] As a sophomore in 2019, he appeared in twenty games (two starts) and went 4–3 with a 1.52 ERA and 58 strikeouts over 47+1⁄3 innings.[2] He made four starts in 2020 before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] Stone also played collegiate summer baseball in the Northwoods League for the Battle Creek Bombers in 2019 and the Great Lakes Resorters in 2020.[4]
Professional career
The Los Angeles Dodgers selected Stone in the fifth round, with the 159th overall pick, of the 2020 Major League Baseball draft.[5][6] He signed for $100,000.[7] Stone made his professional debut in 2021 with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and was promoted to the Great Lakes Loons in mid-August.[8] Over 22 starts between the two teams, he went 2–3 with a 3.76 ERA and 138 strikeouts over 91 innings.[9]
He returned to Great Lakes to open the 2022 season.[10] After six starts in which he went 1–1 with a 1.44 ERA over 25 innings, he was promoted to the Tulsa Drillers.[11] After 13 starts with Tulsa, in which he posted a 6–4 record, a 1.60 ERA, and 107 strikeouts over 73+1⁄3 innings, he was promoted to the Oklahoma City Dodgers in mid-August,[12] where he had a 1.16 ERA in six starts[13] and ended his season by striking out 11 in six scoreless innings against the Salt Lake Bees.[14] For the 2022 minor league season, he was 9–6 with a 1.48 ERA in 121+2⁄3 innings in which he struck out 168 batters.[15] Stone was selected by the Dodgers as their 2022 Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year.[16] Stone returned to Oklahoma City to open the 2023 season[17] and he was called up to the majors for the first time on May 3, to start against the Philadelphia Phillies.[18] In his debut, Stone allowed four earned runs on eight hits and two walks in four innings. He recorded one strikeout, of Nick Castellanos.[19] On August 27, Stone picked up his first major league win against the Boston Red Sox.[20] In the majors, he pitched in eight games (four starts) and gave up 31 earned runs in 31 innings (9.00 ERA)[21] while he pitched in 21 games (19 starts) at Oklahoma City with a 7–4 record and 4.74 ERA with 120 strikeouts.[13] Stone struck out ten in 6+1⁄3 innings to help Oklahoma City win the Pacific Coast League championship series.[22]
During spring training in 2024, manager Dave Roberts announced that Stone would break camp as the team's fifth starter in the rotation.[23] On June 26, Stone pitched a four hit complete game shutout against the Chicago White Sox, the first by a Dodgers rookie pitcher since Hyun-jin Ryu in 2013.[24]
References
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors)
- Central Arkansas Bears bio