Phil William Klein (born April 30, 1989) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) for the Texas Rangers and

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...

; and in

Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning simply ''Professional Baseball''; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league ...

(NPB) for the

Yokohama DeNA BayStars The are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current n ...

Career

Klein played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

Youngstown State University Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergrad ...

from 2008 to 2011.

Texas Rangers

He was drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 30th round of the

2011 Major League Baseball Draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the firs ...

. Klein was called up to the major leagues for the first time on August 1, 2014. He made his first career start on May 20, 2015 against Boston. He pitched 5 innings while allowing 1 run and striking out 4 batters with a win.

Philadelphia Phillies

Klein was claimed off waivers by the Philadelphia Phillies on June 19, 2016. He was then optioned to Triple-A

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

. He was called up to the Phillies on August 3 and was the starting pitcher the same night. Klein was released by the Phillies on December 14, 2016, to pursue an opportunity to play baseball in Asia.

Yokohama DeNA BayStars

Klein signed with the

for the 2017 season. He became a free agent after the 2017 season.

References

External links

Youngstown State Penguins bio
* 1989 births Living people Baseball players from Columbus, Ohio Major League Baseball pitchers Texas Rangers players Philadelphia Phillies players Youngstown State Penguins baseball players Arizona League Rangers players Spokane Indians players Hickory Crawdads players Myrtle Beach Pelicans players Frisco RoughRiders players Round Rock Express players Lehigh Valley IronPigs players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Yokohama DeNA BayStars players American expatriate baseball players in Japan 21st-century American sportsmen {{US-baseball-pitcher-1980s-stub