William Taylor Harris (born August 28, 1984) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. He played in

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), ...

(MLB) for the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

Arizona Diamondbacks The Arizona Diamondbacks (colloquially known as the D-backs) are an American professional baseball team based in Phoenix. The Diamondbacks compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The f ...

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

and

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

. He made his major league debut in 2012. From

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, Harris 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

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

(LSU). The Rockies selected him in the ninth round of the 2006 MLB draft. As a member of the Astros, Harris won been named an American League All-Star (2016), won the

2017 World Series The 2017 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2017 season. The 113th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff played between the National League (NL) champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the ...

, and, in 2019, pitched in both a combined

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

and immaculate inning.

Early life

Harris played baseball at Slidell High School in

Slidell, Louisiana Slidell is a city on the northeast shore of Lake Pontchartrain in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 28,781 at the 2020 census. It is part of the New Orleans− Metairie−Kenner metropolitan statistical area. Hist ...

. He attended

(LSU) and played collegiate baseball for

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

. In 2004, he played

collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...

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 thousan ...

for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

Professional career

Colorado Rockies

The

selected Harris in the ninth round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft. Harris made his professional debut with the Low-A

Tri-City Dust Devils The Tri-City Dust Devils are a Minor League Baseball team in the northwest United States, based in Pasco, Washington. The Dust Devils are members of the Northwest League and are affiliated with the Los Angeles Angels. Tri-City plays their home gam ...

. In 2007, Harris played for the Single-A

Asheville Tourists The Asheville Tourists are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. They are located in Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville teams have played under the Tourists moniker in differen ...

, recording a stellar 1.32 ERA in 38 appearances. The next year he played for the High-A

Modesto Nuts The Modesto Nuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Modesto, California, and are named for the several types of nuts grown in the region. They play the ...

, posting a 2.77 ERA in 49 games for the team. He only appeared in 1 game in 2009, for Tri-City, and did not play at all in 2010. In 2011, Harris returned to Modesto, registering a3-2 record and 5.55 ERA in 33 appearances. To begin the 2012 season, Harris split the year between the Double-A

Tulsa Drillers The Tulsa Drillers are a minor league baseball team based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The team, which plays in the Texas League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers major-league club. Stadium The Drillers play at ONEOK Field (pronounc ...

and the Triple-A

Colorado Springs Sky Sox The Colorado Springs Sky Sox were a Minor League Baseball team in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The team played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and was the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Milwaukee Brewers (2015–2018), Colorado Rockie ...

, posting a 1.02 ERA in Colorado Springs and a 2.62 ERA in Tulsa. Harris was promoted to the majors for the first time on August 11, 2012. He made his major league debut the next day, allowing 3 earned runs in 1.0 inning of work against the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

. He finished his rookie season with an unsightly 8.15 ERA across 20 appearances. On March 29, 2013, Harris was designated for assignment by the Rockies.

Arizona Diamondbacks

On April 3, 2013, Harris was claimed off waivers by the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

. The

claimed Harris off waivers from the Athletics three days later. In 61 appearances for Arizona in 2013, Harris recorded a 2.91 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 52.2 innings of work. The next year, Harris split the year between the Triple-A

Reno Aces The Reno Aces are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. They are located in Reno, Nevada, and play their home games at Greater Nevada Field, which opened in 2009. ...

and Arizona, posting a superb 0.99 ERA in Reno, but a less sightly 4.34 ERA in 29 appearances for the big league club.

Houston Astros

On November 3, 2014, Harris was claimed off waivers by the

. Harris appeared in 68 games in 2015, pitching to a 5–5 record and 1.90 ERA with 68 strikeouts. Harris was invited to his first

MLB All-Star Game The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, and finished that season with an ERA of 2.25 in 66 appearances and 12 saves. The following

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, Harris was limited to 46 games during the regular season due to injury, posting a 2.98 ERA. He appeared in six games in the 2017 postseason. In a combined total of four innings, he allowed six hits and one run. The Astros won the

, the first-ever World Series victory for the franchise, and World Series championship earned for Harris as well. In

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, Harris pitched in 61 games, going 5–3 with an ERA of 3.49. On August 3,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Harris worked in relief in a combined

of 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) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

. The final score was 9–0. Harris pitched an

immaculate inning In baseball, a strikeout occurs when a pitcher throws three strike zone, strikes to a Batting (baseball), batter during his time at bat. An immaculate inning occurs when a pitcher strikes out all three batters he faces in one inning, using the mi ...

in relief in the eighth inning versus the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

on September 27, 2019. During the 2019 regular season, he was 4–1 with four saves and a 1.50 ERA; over 68 relief appearances, he pitched 60 innings and struck out 62 batters. He set two single-season relief pitching franchise records in 2019—for ERA, and for

inherited runners This is an alphabetical list of selected unofficial and specialized terms, phrases, and other jargon used in baseball, along with their definitions, including illustrative examples for many entries. ...

strand rate (97.7%). In Game 3 of the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

, Harris entered the bottom of the sixth inning versus the

with one out and two runners aboard. He proceeded to strand both runners and retire the side the following inning for a season-high five outs recorded on the way to a 4–1 Astros win. However, he surrendered the go-ahead home run to

Howie Kendrick Howard Joseph Kendrick III (born July 12, 1983) is an American former professional baseball infielder and current special assistant to the General Manager for the Philadelphia Phillies. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim selected Kendrick in the t ...

in Game 7 as the Nationals prevailed and won the World Series.

Washington Nationals

On January 3, 2020, the

announced they had signed Harris to a three-year guaranteed contract reportedly worth $24 million. Harris could not replicate his 2019 success with Houston in 2020, but still had a solid season with Washington, registering a 3.06 ERA with 21 strikeouts in 17 innings of work. On May 30, 2021, it was announced that Harris would undergo surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, likely ending his 2021 season. He was placed on the 60-day injured list on June 12. In eight games for the Nationals, Harris struggled to a 9.00 ERA. Harris ran into a setback in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome during Spring Training in 2022 and was shut down. Another surgery was required to remove scar tissue that had built up in his arm. On March 31, 2022, Harris officially underwent right pectoral surgery. He was placed on the 60-day injured list to begin the season on April 7.

Retirement

On February 10, 2023, Harris' wife, Caroline, posted a video on Instagram mentioning that he had retired from baseball after nearly a decade in MLB.

Scouting report

Harris throws three pitches — a

four-seam fastball A four-seam fastball, also called a rising fastball, a four-seamer, or a cross-seam fastball, is a pitch in baseball. It is a member of the fastball family of pitches and is usually the hardest (i.e., fastest) ball thrown by a pitcher. It is ca ...

in the mid 90s, a cutter in the low 90's, and a

curveball In baseball and softball, the curveball is a type of pitch thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball, causing it to dive as it approaches the plate. Varieties of curveball include the 12–6 curve ...

in the upper 70s.

Personal life

Harris has one older brother, Clay, and one younger brother, Dylan. Clay was an infielder at

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

from 2002 through 2005, and played in the Philadelphia Phillies' minor league system. Harris and his wife Caroline have a son and a daughter and reside in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

References

External links

LSU Tigers bio
: {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Will 1984 births Living people American League All-Stars Colorado Rockies players Arizona Diamondbacks players Houston Astros players Washington Nationals players LSU Tigers baseball players Yarmouth–Dennis Red Sox players Tri-City Dust Devils players Asheville Tourists players Modesto Nuts players Tulsa Drillers players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Reno Aces players Baseball players from Houston Major League Baseball pitchers