Cade Cavalli
Washington Nationals pitcher, 2020 first-round draft pick.
Last updated
Cade Cavalli is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was selected 22nd overall by the Nationals in the 2020 MLB draft and made his MLB debut in 2022.
Amateur career
Cavalli attended Bixby High School in Bixby, Oklahoma. As a junior in 2016, he posted a 7–1 win–loss record with a 2.02 ERA and batted .416 with four home runs and 47 RBIs. A back injury limited his senior season in 2017. The Atlanta Braves selected him in the 29th round of the 2017 MLB draft, but he did not sign and enrolled at the University of Oklahoma.
In 2018, his freshman year, he pitched to a 6.75 ERA and hit .202 with six home runs and 28 RBIs over 58 games. That summer, he played for the Wareham Gatemen of the Cape Cod Baseball League. As a sophomore in 2019, he had a 5–3 record and a 3.28 ERA over 12 starts, batting .319 with four home runs and 17 RBIs in 19 games; he missed three weeks due to soreness. He played for the United States collegiate national baseball team that summer.
Entering his junior year in 2020, he was named Big 12 Conference Preseason Pitcher of the Year. He made four starts with a 4.18 ERA and 37 strikeouts before the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professional career
The Washington Nationals selected Cavalli in the first round, 22nd overall, of the 2020 MLB draft, and he signed for a $3 million signing bonus. The minor league season was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so he did not play that year. In 2021, he began with the Wilmington Blue Rocks of the High-A East, posting a 3–1 record and 1.77 ERA before a promotion to the Harrisburg Senators of the Double-A Northeast on June 14. That month, he was selected for the All-Star Futures Game at Coors Field.
After 11 starts with Harrisburg (3–3, 2.79 ERA, 80 strikeouts in 58 innings), he was promoted to the Rochester Red Wings of the Triple-A East, where he went 1–5 with a 7.30 ERA over six starts. His 175 strikeouts across the three clubs led the minor leagues. He began 2022 with Rochester and was again selected for the All-Star Futures Game. On August 26, 2022, the Nationals selected his contract for his MLB debut at Nationals Park against the Cincinnati Reds; he allowed seven runs, six hits, and two walks with six strikeouts and three hit batters over his innings in a 7–3 loss.
Right shoulder inflammation ended his 2022 season. In 2023 spring training, he sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow on March 14 against the New York Mets and underwent Tommy John surgery, missing the season. After recovery, he returned in the second half of 2024, but influenza and dead arm limited him to three appearances: one with the Single-A Fredericksburg Nationals and two with Wilmington, totaling 8 1/3 innings with a 2.18 ERA and no decisions. He was healthy by the end of the 2024 minor-league season but did not rejoin the Nationals.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Cade Cavalli (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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