It’s a given in the modern baseball game that every team will have its pitching depth tested over the course of the season. It is not a given that the depth will be tested to the extent that the D-Backs were this season. That kind of apocalyptic nightmare could even prompt a team to use Scott McGough for a significant portion of the season. In fairness, I’m not sure if any amount of preparation or foresight could have constructed a roster that would be able to withstand that kind of nightmare. But that nightmare also gave players like Austin Pope, a career minor leaguer, the opportunity to finally debut in the big leagues.
Originally drafted by the D-Backs back in 2019 out of Fairfield University, Pope belongs to the large group of players whose career trajectories might have been dramatically different in the alternate universe where COVID doesn’t happen or is at least less impactful. With just one partial season of rookie ball under his belt, Pope wouldn’t see live organized ball until the summer of 2021 where he struggled his way to an 8.71 ERA with Visalia in 18 games before getting promoted to Hillsboro and posting an impressive 2.55 ERA. That pattern of uneven performance would continue for the next two years as he paired a 1.35 ERA in Hillsboro with an 8.49 ERA in Amarillo the next year and then combined a 4.23 ERA with the Sod Poodles with a 2.45 ERA in Reno in 2023. He finally stuck in Reno for all of 2024, struggling to an elevated (even for the Pacific Coast League) 5.72 ERA in 55 games.
He was substantially better this year, putting together a 4.60 ERA in 25 games and eventually earning the briefest of cups of coffee in late September and making his big league debut with a couple scoreless innings in a blowout loss to the Dodgers. Despite those results, the team optioned Pope back and forth to Reno one more time without getting him into another game before the end of the season. Pope utilizes a four-pitch mix (four-seam fastball, slider, curveball, and sinker) without any of them particularly standing out – including a fastball that tops out at 94.
Sadly, Pope was an unfortunate casualty of roster math. Because the injured list doesn’t exist in the offseason, the bullpen’s worth of players that were on the IL at the end of the season had to be moved onto the 40-man roster. Those players, combined with the need to protect several prospects from the Rule 5 draft next month, created a math problem that could only be resolved by releasing the 2019 draftee. That release leaves Pope as a free agent for the 2026 season.
The state of pitching in baseball is desperate enough that I feel confident Pope will get an opportunity somewhere – likely on a minor-league deal. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Diamondbacks try to sign him to that deal given that many of the same bevy of pitchers that pushed him off the roster will be unavailable for the start of next season and they’re already familiar with his repertoire. Personally, I am always a fan of players who grind out careers in the minor leagues and finally find success with the teams that originally drafted them. I just have to hope that Pope gets that opportunity – either with the D-Backs or with another team around the league.
