American baseball pitcher (born 1984)
Ian Patrick Kennedy (born December 19, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Between 2007 and 2023, he played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers, and Philadelphia Phillies.
A standout pitcher at La Quinta High School in California, Kennedy played three seasons of college baseball for the USC Trojans. The Yankees selected him 21st overall in the 2006 MLB Draft and he quickly rose through the team's farm system, making his major league debut the next year. The Yankees traded Kennedy to the Diamondbacks after the 2009 season, and he became Arizona's ace, leading the National League in wins during the 2011 season.
The Royals moved Kennedy to the bullpen in 2019 after a series of injuries, and he found a new role as the team's closer, and he continued to work as a relief pitcher for the remainder of his career.
Early life.
Kennedy was born on December 19, 1984, in Huntington Beach, California. From a young age, he was known for his natural pitching talent, particularly in finding his target with a fastball. Kennedy began gaining a reputation as a power pitcher when he was a freshman at La Quinta High School in Westminster, California, pitching a five-inning perfect game. As a sophomore, he posted a 10–2 win–loss record with a 1.33 earned run average (ERA). As a junior, he boasted a 0.38 ERA and recorded 168 strikeouts in ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;90+1⁄3 innings pitched, with a fastball speed hovering between . As a batter, Kennedy also recorded seven home runs and 31 runs batted in (RBIs) that year. He missed most of his senior season with a fractured patella but managed to put up an 8–0 record and a 0.43 ERA in the games that he did play. Kennedy graduated high school in 2003 with a 39–2 record.
Between his junior and senior year of high school, Kennedy played internationally with the 2002 US Junior National Team, with whom he went 1–0 with a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings. Kennedy was tapped as the starting pitcher for the US team's bronze medal match at the 2002 World Junior Baseball Championship, where he took the win with only one earned run and 10 strikeouts in seven innings of work.
College career.
The St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB) drafted Kennedy in the 14th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft, but he chose not to sign with the team, instead honoring his commitment to play college baseball for the University of Southern California (USC). There, he followed Anthony Reyes as the team's pitching ace. In 2004, he was the first freshman to make the top of the USC starting rotation since Randy Flores had done so in 1994. He pitched ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;92+2⁄3 innings, striking out 120 batters and posting a 7–2 record with a 2.91 ERA. At the end of the year, Kennedy was named to the "Baseball America" Freshman All-America Team. That summer, he helped take the US College National Team to a gold medal at the World University Baseball Championship, putting up a 3–1 record with a 3.81 ERA and leading the team with 40 strikeouts. Kennedy was credited with the win in the championship match against Japan, where he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning.
USC baseball coach Mike Gillespie opened the 2005 season with the intention of using Kennedy up to three times a week, pitching on Fridays, Sundays, and Tuesdays to limit the damage of the school's dearth of starting pitchers. Pitching coach Dave Lawn, meanwhile, focused on improving Kennedy's command and stamina, which would allow him to pitch deeper into each game. His sophomore year turned into a breakout season for Kennedy, who went 12–2 with a 2.54 ERA, earned consensus All-American honors, and helped lead the Trojans through the first round of the 2005 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Ultimately, however, the Trojans fell to Oregon State at the Corvallis Super Regional and were eliminated from the tournament. Kennedy, meanwhile, was named the Pac-10 Conference Pitcher of the Year after striking out 95 batters in his first ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;67+1⁄3 innings.
Going into the 2006 college baseball season, USC lost many staples of its rotation to the MLB draft, including catcher Jeff Clement and third baseman Billy Hart, and Kennedy was called upon to be a leader for the younger members of the team. That February, he came within one out of a no-hitter against Kansas before senior Ritchie Price recorded a hit in the ninth inning. Ultimately, Kennedy could not repeat the success of the previous season, slumping to a 5–7 record with a 3.90 ERA in 2006. Kennedy finished his college baseball career with a 24–12 record and a 3.09 ERA. He came in third at the time for all-time USC strikeouts with 380, and was second in strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) with 10.99.
Professional career.
Minor leagues.
The New York Yankees selected Kennedy in the first round, 21st overall, of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft. He was the 39th player in USC history to become a first-round MLB draft selection. He signed with the team in mid-August for a $2.25 million signing bonus, roughly $750,000 more than expected for a 21st overall draft selection, and was assigned to the Class A Short-Season Staten Island Yankees of the New York–Penn League. Kennedy made his professional baseball debut on September 6, 2006, pitching ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;2+2⁄3 innings against the Tri-City ValleyCats. After playing one game for Staten Island, Kennedy spent the winter with the West Oahu CaneFires of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league. In nine games there, including seven starts, he posted a 0–2 record and a 4.45 ERA, striking out 45 batters in ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;30+1⁄3 innings.
Following his brief Staten Island outing, Kennedy was assigned to the Class A Tampa Yankees of the Florida State League to begin the 2007 season. In 10 Class A starts, Kennedy posted a 6–1 record with a 1.29 ERA, striking out 72 batters in 63 innings and holding his opponents to a .183 batting average. He received a promotion to the Double-A Trenton Thunder at the start of June and won his Double-A debut against the Binghamton Mets on June 6, 2007. On July 24, Kennedy and his rotation mate Joba Chamberlain were both promoted from Trenton to the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees. At the time of his promotion, Kennedy led the Yankees' farm system with 129 strikeouts and was tied for first with 11 wins. He made only six starts with Scranton, going 1–1 with a 2.08 ERA and striking out 34 batters in ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;34+2⁄3 innings. Altogether, Kennedy posted a 12–3 minor league record in 2007, with a 1.91 ERA and 163 strikeouts in 25 starts and ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;146+1⁄3 innings.
New York Yankees (2007–2009).
After Mike Mussina lost three starts in a row for the Yankees, recording a 17.69 ERA in the process, Kennedy was called up to take his spot in the rotation at the end of August, becoming the second Yankee that season to climb from Class A to major league ball. He made his major league debut on September 1, 2007, allowing only one earned run in seven innings of an eventual 9–6 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After going 1–0 with a 1.89 ERA in his first three major league starts, Kennedy had to be scratched from a scheduled September 22 game against the Toronto Blue Jays because he strained a muscle in his upper back. The injury forced Kennedy to miss the remainder of the season.
Rather than acquiring a veteran free agent starting pitcher during the 2007–08 offseason, the Yankees chose to entrust their starting rotation to a trio of young pitchers: Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain, and Phil Hughes. The plan did not work as expected: Kennedy went 0–2 with an 8.37 ERA in his first six games and was optioned to Triple-A on May 4, with Darrell Rasner taking his place at the back of the rotation. After finding success in the International League, including a four-game stretch with a 1.33 ERA, Kennedy was called back up to the Yankees for an emergency start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on August 8. He allowed nine hits and five runs and was pulled out of the game in the third inning. Kennedy's major league record for the season fell to 0–4 while his ERA rose to 8.17. It would be his last major league start in the Yankees organization.
Kennedy opened the 2009 season in Triple-A but began feeling numbness in his pitching hand that April. On May 8, he was diagnosed with an aneurysm around his biceps and underwent surgery the following week. He began facing live batters again at the start of September, and from there, Kennedy pitched in six minor-league games, including two starts, for a total of ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;27+2⁄3 innings. He returned to the major leagues on September 20, with manager Joe Girardi intending to utilize Kennedy as a long reliever. Kennedy made his first Yankees appearance in over a year on September 23, walking two batters and hitting another with a pitch during the eighth inning of an eventual 3–2 win over the Angels. Kennedy was subsequently left off of the postseason roster on the Yankees' run to a 2009 World Series championship title. After the season ended, he joined the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League to make up for the mostly-lost season. Experimenting with developing off-speed pitches, Kennedy had a 4.25 ERA during his fall league stint, putting up a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5.6 in his ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;29+2⁄3 innings.
Arizona Diamondbacks (2010–2013).
On December 8, 2009, Kennedy was part of a three-team, seven-player trade with the Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Detroit Tigers. Kennedy, Phil Coke, and prospect Austin Jackson went from New York to Detroit in exchange for All-Star center fielder Curtis Granderson, with Kennedy then flipped to Arizona alongside Edwin Jackson so that the Tigers could acquire Diamondbacks pitchers Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth. The Diamondbacks started showing interest in Kennedy when he pitched for the Arizona Fall League, and he earned a position in the Arizona starting rotation by the end of March 2010. The Diamondbacks' player development staff agreed at the start of the season to limit Kennedy's workload to a total of 180 innings, an amount that would help the pitcher extend his durability without pushing him into additional injuries. Kennedy picked up his first win in over two years on April 29, pitching eight innings in the Diamondbacks' 13–5 rout of the Chicago Cubs. Kennedy was able to take a one-run game into the eighth inning before giving up a grand slam to Kosuke Fukudome, and Daniel Stange was called in to pitch a perfect ninth inning for his own MLB debut. On August 26, Kennedy struck out a career-high 12 batters in an 11–5 victory over the San Diego Padres. He cited Arizona's early lead, in which they picked up nine runs in the first ;templatestyles src="Fraction/styles.css" / ;3+1⁄3 innings, with helping him relax enough to maintain his command. Kennedy finished his first full major league season with a 9–10 record and a 3.80 ERA in 32 starts, as well as 168 strikeouts in 194 innings. He also walked 70 batters and led MLB with 16 wild pitches.
Arizona manager Kirk Gibson tapped Kennedy to serve as the Diamondbacks' opening day starter for the 2011 season, after he went 0–0 with a 7.88 ERA during spring training. Kennedy took two innings to settle into his rhythm, allowing three earned runs in six innings of the eventual 7–6 loss to the Colorado Rockies. After a brief trip to New York to be with his wife and their newborn child, Kennedy pitched his first major league complete game on April 25, outdueling ace Cliff Lee in a 4–0 shutout of the Philadelphia Phillies. He continued to perform well through the summer, building a seven-game winning streak as well as 22 straight starts in which he threw at least 100 pitches. Both of those streaks were broken on August 19, when Kennedy allowed three runs and five hits to