Two Guys to Root for in Spring Training: Kazmir and Kazmar
A pair of similarly-named, but very different players are looking to make big league rosters this spring. The recognizable name is left-handed pitcher Scott Kazmir, the not-so-newcomer Sean Kazmar Jr.
Scott Kazmir
Kazmir agreed to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training with the San Francisco Giants. The now 37-year-old southpaw was a first-round pick (15th overall) of the New York Mets in the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft, taken one spot before Nick Swisher and two spots before Cole Hamels.
It didn’t take long for Kazmir to land on the Baseball America Top-100 Prospects list. After striking out 34 batters in 18 innings as an 18-year-old in Low-A, Kazmir was the #11 prospect in baseball before the 2003 season. In his second year in professional baseball, he had 146 strikeouts in 109.3 innings across A and High-A and dropped one spot to #12 on the Baseball America list prior to the 2004 season.
At the trade deadline that season, Kazmir was infamously traded by the Mets to the Devil Rays (their name at that time) for Victor Zambrano. He continued to pitch well in the minor leagues before making his major league debut with five shutout innings in a win against the Seattle Mariners on August 23, when he was just 20 years old. In the offseason, he moved up to #7 on the Baseball America Top-100 heading into 2005.
Over the next five seasons, Kazmir struck out 859 batters in 837 innings, with a 3.75 ERA. He finished in the top-10 in AL Rookie of the Year voting and made the AL All-Star team twice, including the 2007 season when led the AL with 239 strikeouts.
The Rays were mostly terrible during this time, finishing last in the AL East from 2005 to 2007, before everything came together for them in 2008 and they not only won the division, but advanced all the way to the World Series, which they lost in five games to the Philadelphia Phillies. Kazmir started five postseason games for the Rays in 2008, including a Game 2 victory over Mark Buehrle in the ALDS.
Proving that nothing really changes in Tampa Bay, the Rays traded Kazmir during the 2009 season when he started to get expensive. He was also struggling on the mound for the first time since his rookie year, with a 5.92 ERA in 111 innings.
On August 29, 2009, he was dealt to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (their name at the time). He pitched great down the stretch that season (1.73 ERA in 36 1/3 IP), but was brutal in 2010 (5.94 ERA in 150 IP).
The following season, the pitcher who had once averaged around 93 mph on his fastball clocked in with an 86.5 mph average fastball velocity in one disastrous start in April that lasted just 1 2/3 innings. He was sent down to Triple-A, where he walked 20 batters, beaned six, and threw five wild pitches in 15 1/3 innings (17.02 ERA). The Angels released him in June (wow, OTBB is old).
As detailed in this article by Tim Keown from 2014, Kazmir worked hard to figure out why he could no longer do what he had once done so well. He had lost the speed of his fastball and couldn’t find the plate, going from the proverbial penthouse to the outhouse in relatively short period of time. He had an introductory session with pitching guru Ron Wolforth of the Texas Baseball Ranch, but initially rejected the unconventional drills Wolforth recommended. Then, four months after being released by the Angels, he went back to Wolforth to overhaul his mechanics.
In the winter of 2011-2012, the former top prospect pitched one-third of an innings for the Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League. He followed that up with 64 innings of 5.34 ERA pitching for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic Independent League in the summer of 2012. Despite the high ERA with the Skeeters, there were signs of life in Kazmir’s left arm. The pitcher who had been released with a mid-80s fastball started to hit 90 mph regularly, then 92, and in one start with the Skeeters, 95 mph on multiple pitches. That winter, Kazmir had a 4.37 ERA in 22 2/3 innings for the Gigantes de Carolina in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
All three stops were a long way from pitching in the World Series a few years earlier, but Kazmir still had hope, not yet ready to give up on a career that had started out so well.
In December of 2012, he signed a minor league deal with Cleveland and earned a spot in their rotation in 2013. He recaptured enough of his former stuff to strike out 162 batters in 158 innings, with a 4.04 ERA and 3.51 FIP. His average fastball velocity was back up to 92.5. That performance led to a free agent contract with the Oakland A’s and a 3.55 ERA in 190 1/3 innings in 2014. He was an all-star for the third time, which was quite amazing for a guy who had been pitching in an independent league just two years before.
The 2015 season started well for Kazmir, as he had a 2.87 ERA in 109 2/3 innings for Oakland. Despite Kazmir’s success, the A’s were on their way to a last-place finish in the AL West, so they dealt the lefty to Houston in July. Kazmir didn’t pitch as well for the Astros as he had for the A’s (5.15 ERA in 73.3 IP), but was still given the ball for a start in the ALDS against the Royals.
In the offseason, Kazmir signed a free agent deal with the Dodgers. He pitched 136.3 innings for them in 2016, but injuries cut short his season and wiped out most of the 2017 season as well. That December, he was part of a package of players traded to the Braves for Matt Kemp, but was released the following spring.
Kazmir didn’t pitch anywhere in 2018 or 2019, but resurfaced in the Constellation Energy League in 2020. This independent league was created during the great pandemic of 2020 as a way to give minor leaguers and former major leaguers a chance to play baseball while the affiliated minor leagues were shut down due to COVID-19. Kazmir pitched for the Eastern Reyes del Tigre along with former major leaguers T.J. House, Aaron Blair, and Andres Machado, among others.
Now, in the spring of 2021, nineteen years after being a first-round pick and more than four years since his last major league appearance, Kazmir is hoping to get back on a big league mound with the Giants. You can’t help but root for him, given all the twists and turns his career has taken.
Sean Kazmar Jr.
Another guy to root for this spring is a similarly-named non-roster invitee—Sean Kazmar Jr. Way back in 2002, Kazmar was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 32nd round of the 2002 MLB June Amateur Draft. Rather than sign with the Cardinals, Kazmar attended the College of Southern Nevada, whose most famous professional baseball playing alum is Bryce Harper.
Kazmar was drafted by the A’s the following June, but again returned to college. He finally signed with the San Diego Padres after being drafted in the 5th round of the 2004 June draft.
Over the next four years, Kazmar made his way up the minor league ladder in towns such as Fort Wayne, Eugene, Lake Elsinore, West Oahu, and San Antonio. All of the time he toiled in the minor leagues finally paid off in August of 2008 when he was called up by the Padres and made his major league debut against the Milwaukee Brewers. Facing CC Sabathia in the first plate appearance of his major league career, Kazmar hit a line drive single to left field. A few weeks later, he had the best game of his major league career when he went 3-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Overall, he hit just .205/.289/.231 in 46 plate appearance spread across 19 games.
Imagine being Sean Kazmar Jr. at this point of his career. He was 23 years old and had reached the pinnacle of his sport. Surely, the next few years would bring more of the same?
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Kazmar was back in Triple-A in 2009 and 2010. He was granted free agency and signed with the Seattle Mariners, where he played with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers in 2011. Then it was Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Buffalo in the New York Mets organization in 2012. Prior to the 2013 season, Kazmar signed with Atlanta and was back in Triple-A, with Gwinnett.
And that’s where he’s played ever since, year after year, perpetually stuck in Triple-A, like a modern-day Crash Davis, but without the record-setting home run total. The 36-year-old baseball lifer has played 1,670 games in the minor leagues, 1,049 at the Triple-A level. He’s played every position on the field except catcher. This includes pitching three scoreless innings in 2019. In one of those appearances, he came into the game in the top of the 9th, pitched a scoreless inning, then earned the victory when teammate Luis Marte hit a game-winning home run.
During his long career, Kazmar has put together some good seasons with the bat (.297/.348/.435 in 2014) and struggled through some not-so-good seasons at the dish (.254/.296/.314 in 2018). As this video with former teammate Chase d’Arnaud reveals, more than anything, the guy simply loves baseball.
Kazmar is a non-roster invitee with Atlanta this spring, hoping to get back to the show one more time. In an interview with the Gwinnett Daily Post in 2017, he reminisced about his major league time with the Padres in 2008: “The Padres gave me the opportunity in early August of 2008 to fill in for a guy. I got 48 days in the big leagues. I got 17 starts, 19 games played. Honestly, it was the greatest 48 days of my life. It could be a reason why I’m still going today. I want that feeling again. But it’s also (that) I love the game. I love being around the guys. I love being in the clubhouse. I love coming to the field every day and seeing the guys.”
In an ideal world, both Scott Kazmir and Sean Kazmar Jr. would make the big leagues in 2021. It’s a longshot for both, but it can’t hurt to be optimistic. San Francisco and Atlanta are scheduled to play a three-game series in Atlanta from August 27 to August 29, so there’s at least a small chance that they could face each other in a major league game, with Kazmir five years removed from his last major league appearance and Kazmar looking at a 13-year stretch between big league appearances. And this is suddenly the thing I never knew could happen until recently that I most want to happen this season.
