TEMPE, Ariz. – Former Arizona State catcher Austin Barnes became the 103rd Sun Devil to play Major League Baseball after making his debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 24. Barnes started the game at catcher and batted eighth in the lineup, and notched his first MLB hit in the eighth inning.
ASU is now tied with Texas for the second-most alums in the MLB, and USC leads all schools with 109. ASU's major leaguers all debuted since 1963, while Texas (1908) and USC (1927) have a much longer history of sending players to the big leagues. Texas' list also includes three freshman-only players, while USC has five freshman-only players.
The 103 players ASU has sent to the Major Leagues is the most of any school since 1959, the year baseball’s modern era started at ASU, and ASU has had at least one major league player on their varsity roster from 1961 through 2011, which is the longest current streak in the nation. Twenty-eight former ASU baseball players have made their MLB debuts since 2002, and Barnes is the first player from ASU’s 2011 team to reach the MLB.
Barnes is the 13th Sun Devil on an active MLB roster, which is the most among all NCAA schools. ASU has had 400 players taken in the MLB draft, also the most among all schools, and their 41 draft picks over the past five years lead all Div. I programs.
Barnes started 85 games for the Sun Devils in his three-year career and was a two-time All-Pac-10 recipient. He started 41 games for ASU in 2011 and earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors with a .320 batting average, and was Honorable Mention All-Pac-10 in 2010, his first full season as a catcher.
The Florida Marlins selected Barnes, a native of Riverside, Calif., and a graduate of Poly High School, in the ninth round of the 2011 MLB draft. He spent 2011 and 2012 in Class A, and split time between Class A and Double-A in 2013 and 2014. He was traded to the Dodgers prior to the 2015 season and had appeared in 29 games with Triple-A Oklahoma City before he was recalled to the Dodgers May 23.
The list of Sun Devils who have played in the MLB includes Floyd Bannister, Barry Bonds, Bob Horner, Reggie Jackson, Paul Lo Duca, Oddibe McDowell, Dustin Pedroia and Don Wakamatsu. Pete Lovrich was ASU's first Major Leaguer in 1963 and since then, former Sun Devils have won a combined nine Major League MVP awards and have represented ASU in the MLB All-Star Game 57 times, second most among all NCAA schools.