Matt Andriese was originally tabbed to start today’s game against the Pirates, but unfortunately, as you may have heard, Matt Barnes contracted COVID, and Andriese is undergoing contact tracing, and is thus, unavailable for the ball game. Getting the honor of starting this mostly meaningless Spring Training game is A.J. Politi, who has been a name I’ve long been curious about.
For those unintroduced, Politi was largely a career reliever (who made a few starts) in college for Seton Hall. His debut season was ok, but his 2019 in Salem stood out to me. He pitched 78.2 IP in 33 games, lowered the amount of baserunners he gave up despite tougher competition, and struck out 11 batters per 9 innings.