Christopher Lee Stratton (born August 22, 1990) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

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 dr ...

for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

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 (A ...

(MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...

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 h ...

, and

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

College career

Stratton graduated from

Tupelo High School Tupelo High School is the only public high school in Tupelo, Mississippi. The campus consists of fourteen buildings, including a Performing Arts Center, separate buildings for social studies, English, math, sciences, fine arts, and a self-conta ...

, in

Tupelo, Mississippi Tupelo () is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Mississippi, United States. With an estimated population of 38,300, Tupelo is the sixth-largest city in Mississippi and is considered a commercial, industrial, and cultural hub of North ...

. He then attended

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

from 2010 to 2012. In 2011, 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 ...

with the

Harwich Mariners The Harwich Mariners are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Harwich, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's East Division. The Mariners play their home games at Whitehouse Fiel ...

of 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 ...

. As a senior, he was a consensus All-American after going 11–2 with a 2.38

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the numb ...

and 127

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is den ...

s. He was also the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

Pitcher of the Year. He also won the

C Spire Ferriss Trophy The C Spire Ferriss Trophy was created in the fall of 2003 by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame to honor the Mississippi Collegiate Baseball Player of the Year. The trophy bears the name and likeness of Dave Ferriss. The trophy is cosponsored by ...

as Mississippi's top collegiate baseball player.

Professional career

San Francisco Giants

Stratton was drafted by the

in the first round of the

2012 Major League Baseball draft The 2012 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft was held from June 4 through June 6, 2012, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Houston Astros, with the first overall pick, selected Carlos Correa from the Puerto ...

. In August, he was hospitalized after a

line drive In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a fou ...

struck him in the head. Before the 2013 season, ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' ranked Stratton as the Giants' third best prospect. The Giants added him to their 40-man roster after the 2015 season. Stratton was called up from the

Sacramento River Cats The Sacramento River Cats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Prior to 2015, the River Cats were the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics for 15 ye ...

(AAA-Pacific Coast League) to the majors on May 28, 2016, to replace the injured

Matt Cain Matthew Thomas Cain (born October 1, 1984), nicknamed "The Horse", "Big Daddy", "Big Sugar" and "Cainer", is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career for the San Francisco Giants ...

. Despite being primarily a starter in the minors, the Giants added Stratton to their bullpen and he made his major league debut against the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in ...

on May 30, pitching a scoreless bottom of the eighth inning and recording two strikeouts while retiring all three batters he faced. On June 11, he was credited with his first major league win as he pitched the top of the 10th inning in the Giants victory against the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...

. On June 13 he was sent down again when Cain returned from the DL, but was recalled from the minors the following day when Cain was put back on the DL with a reinjured hamstring. Stratton pitched in seven games for the Giants with a 1–0 record and a 3.60 ERA. He compiled a 12–6 record and a 3.87 ERA during the year for the Sacramento River Cats. In 2018, Stratton was 'up-&-down' twice with Giants and the River Cats. On September 14, 2018, Stratton threw his first MLB complete game against 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 Fi ...

, winning by a score of 2–0. It was his 10th win of the season, making him the Giants’ first pitcher to reach double-digit victories since 2016. It was also the first complete game of the season for the Giants, and the first shutout for the team in over a year. Stratton finished the 2018 season with 10 wins, leading the Giants in wins.

Los Angeles Angels

On March 26, 2019, Stratton was traded to the

in exchange for Williams Jerez. He was designated for assignment on May 7, 2019.

Pittsburgh Pirates

On May 11, 2019, Stratton was traded to the

in exchange for cash considerations. In innings with the Pirates, Stratton pitched to a 3.66 ERA with a 9.1 K/9 rate and 1.39 WHIP. In 2020, Stratton recorded a 3.90 ERA with 39 strikeouts and a career-high 11.9 K/9 rate in 30.0 innings of work. In 2021, Stratton led the Pirates with seven wins and recorded a 3.63 ERA with 86 strikeouts over innings.

St. Louis Cardinals

On August 1, 2022, Stratton and José Quintana were traded to the

for Malcom Núñez and Johan Oviedo.

References

External links

Mississippi State Bulldogs bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stratton, Chris 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Tupelo, Mississippi Baseball players from Mississippi Major League Baseball pitchers San Francisco Giants players Los Angeles Angels players Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Cardinals players Mississippi State Bulldogs baseball players Harwich Mariners players Salem-Keizer Volcanoes players Augusta GreenJackets players San Jose Giants players Richmond Flying Squirrels players Sacramento River Cats players All-American college baseball players Tupelo High School alumni