Anthony Aaron Zych (; born August 7, 1990) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("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, who attempts to e ...

. He pitched for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

from 2015 through 2017. Zych is notable as the last player in alphabetical order among all of those who have ever played major league baseball.

Amateur career

Zych is from

Monee, Illinois Monee is a village in Will County, Illinois, United States, a south suburb of Chicago. The population was 5,128 at the 2020 census. Transportation Plans for a new Metra station on 2nd Avenue are undergoing studies. In 2016, the River Valley Met ...

. He traveled each way from Monee to attend

St. Rita of Cascia High School St. Rita of Cascia High School is an all-male Catholic high school located in the Ashburn neighborhood on Chicago's Southwest Side., United States. It is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, is operated by the Province of Our Mothe ...

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

, due to the higher level of competition offered in the

Chicago Catholic League The Chicago Catholic League (CCL) is a high school athletic conference based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. All of the schools are part of the Illinois High School Association, the governing body for Illinois scholastic sports. While some o ...

than he would have faced if he attended Crete-Monee High School. He played for the school's baseball team as a second baseman, and also occasionally served as their

closing Closing may refer to: Business and law * Closing (law), a closing argument, a summation * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction * Closing (sales), the process of making a sale * Closing a business, the proc ...

. As a senior, Zych had a .410

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average i ...

and a 9–2

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

. After graduating from high school, the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is locate ...

selected Zych in the 46th round of the

2008 Major League Baseball draft The 2008 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft continued Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, and was held on June 5 and 6, 2008. First round selections ;Key Supplemental first rou ...

. He opted not to sign, and instead enrolled at the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

, where he played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

. Competing in the

Cape Cod Baseball League The Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL or Cape League) is a collegiate summer baseball wooden bat league located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. One of the nation's premier collegiate summer leagues, the league boasts over one thous ...

for the

Bourne Braves The Bourne Braves are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bourne, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Braves play their home games at Doran Park on the ca ...

in 2010, Zych received the league's Outstanding Relief Pitcher and Outstanding Pro Prospect awards. He served as the closer for Louisville.

Professional career

Chicago Cubs

The

selected Zych in the fourth 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 ...

, and he signed with the Cubs. The Cubs assigned Zych to the

Boise Hawks The Boise Hawks are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. Home games are played at Memorial Stadium in Garden City, Idaho, a small city surroun ...

of the

Class A-Short Season Class A Short Season (officially Short-Season A) was a level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States from 1965 through 2020. In the hierarchy of minor league classifications, it was below Triple-A, Double-A, Class A-Advanced (cre ...

Northwest League The Northwest League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Northwestern United States and Western Canada. A Class A Short Season league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Basebal ...

in 2011. He began the 2012 season with the

Daytona Cubs Daytona refers to the city of Daytona Beach, Florida, or things named after it. Daytona may also refer to: Locations * Daytona Beach Shores, Florida * South Daytona, Florida * The Daytona Beach metropolitan area * Halifax area, also known as ...

of the

Class A-Advanced High-A (officially Class High-A, formerly known as Class A-Advanced, and sometimes abbreviated "A+" in writing) is the third-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States and Canada, below Triple-A and Double-A, and abov ...

Florida State League The Florida State League (FSL) is a Minor League Baseball league based in the state of Florida. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A follow ...

, and was promoted to the

Tennessee Smokies The Tennessee Smokies are a Minor League Baseball team based in Kodak, Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. They play at Smokies Stadium, directly off I ...

of the

Class AA Double-A (officially Class AA) is the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946, below only Triple-A. There are currently 30 teams classified at the Double-A level, one for each team in Major League ...

Southern League. After the 2012 season, the Cubs assigned Zych to the

Mesa Solar Sox The Mesa Solar Sox are a baseball team that plays in the East Division of the Arizona Fall League. They play their home games in Mesa, Arizona, at Sloan Park, which is also the spring training facility of the Chicago Cubs. The team was establishe ...

of the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season sports league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during the autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are fi ...

, where he had a 1.29 ERA in seven games. He returned to Tennessee in 2013, and had a 5–5

and a 3.05

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the numb ...

(ERA). He returned to Tennessee in 2014, and had a 4–5 win–loss record with a 5.09 ERA.

Seattle Mariners

At the end of

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives estab ...

in 2015, the Cubs traded Zych to the

for a

player to be named later In Major League Baseball, a player to be named later (PTBNL) is an unnamed player involved in exchange or "trade" of players between teams. The terms of a trade are not finalized until a later date, most often following the conclusion of the seaso ...

or cash considerations in the amount of $1. The Cubs eventually chose the dollar over a player. In 2015, Zych pitched for the

Jackson Generals The Jackson Generals were a professional baseball team located in Jackson, Tennessee. From 1998 to 2020, they were a part of Minor League Baseball's Southern League (SL) as the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs (1998–2006), Seattle Mari ...

of the Southern League and the

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960 ...

of the

Class AAA Triple-A (officially Class AAA) has been the highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946. Currently, two leagues operate at the Triple-A level, the International League (IL) and the Pacific Coast League (PCL ...

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Bas ...

. Between the two teams, he pitched to a 2.98 ERA with 55 strikeouts in total innings. The Mariners promoted him to the major leagues on September 1, 2015. He made his major league debut on September 4. He had a 2.45 ERA with 24 strikeouts in

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning ...

for Seattle. , Zych's name ranks last

alphabetically Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is t ...

among the 19,000-plus to play in the major leagues. Zych began the 2016 season with the Mariners, and allowed four

earned run In baseball, an earned run is any run that was fully enabled by the offensive team's production in the face of competent play from the defensive team. Conversely, an unearned run is a run that would not have been scored without the aid of an err ...

s in 12 innings pitched in April. After an appearance on May 1, 2016, Zych went on the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

with

tendinitis Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder ( rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow ( tennis e ...

in his right

rotator cuff The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the human shoulder and allow for its extensive range of motion. Of the seven scapulohumeral muscles, four make up the rotator cuff. The four muscles are the supraspi ...

. He rested the shoulder until August. He made two appearances for the Mariners towards the end of the season, before he was shut down due to the shoulder pain During the 2016–17 offseason, he had a

biceps tendon The biceps or biceps brachii ( la, musculus biceps brachii, "two-headed muscle of the arm") is a large muscle that lies on the front of the upper arm between the shoulder and the elbow. Both heads of the muscle arise on the scapula and join t ...

transfer surgery in his shoulder: a surgery that had never before been performed in an MLB player.https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/mlb/seattle-mariners/mariners-insider-blog/article145338824.html He missed ten games of the 2017 season in April while recovering from the offseason shoulder surgery, and went on the disabled list in August 2017 with an elbow strain. Through 2017, Zych pitched to a 7–3 win–loss record and 2.72 ERA. He missed much of the 2016 and 2017 seasons with elbow and shoulder injuries. Again limited by injuries during

in 2018, the Mariners released Zych on March 10, 2018.

New York Yankees

On February 12, 2020, Zych signed a minor league deal with the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...

. Zych did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. He became a free agent on November 2, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zych, Tony 1990 births Living people People from Will County, Illinois Baseball players from Illinois Major League Baseball pitchers Seattle Mariners players Louisville Cardinals baseball players Bourne Braves players Arizona League Cubs players Boise Hawks players Daytona Cubs players Tennessee Smokies players Jackson Generals (Southern League) players Tacoma Rainiers players Arizona League Mariners players