Aaron Slegers

BIOGRAPHY

Aaron Slegers was born September 4, 1992, in Long Beach, California. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

Slegers attended Notre Dame Preparatory High School in Scottsdale, Arizona. He pitched for the school's baseball team, spending most of his junior year on the junior varsity team. He underwent a growth spurt between his junior and senior years, increasing from 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) to 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m), and resulting arm pain as his bones grew faster than his tendons limited him to only two innings pitched in his senior year. He enrolled at Indiana University Bloomington, where he made the Indiana Hoosiers baseball team as a walk-on. He threw one inning before he suffered a broken wrist when hit by a line drive. The next year, he had a stress fracture in his right tibia. His injuries limited him to throwing 8 1⁄3 total innings in his freshman and sophomore years. In 2013, his junior year, Slegers helped Indiana win the Big Ten Conference's regular-season championship and the conference tournament, and Indiana appeared in the 2013 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. He was named the Big Ten Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year after going 9-2 with a 2.04 ERA.

On March 30, 2019, Slegers was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for cash considerations. On May 16, 2019, Slegers was designated for assignment by the Rays without appearing in an MLB game for them. On August 21, the Rays selected his contract. On September 2, Slegers was designated for assignment. He elected free agency on October 1, but later re-signed with the Rays on a minor league deal in the offseason. On June 28, 2020, Tampa Bay named Slegers to the Port Charlotte team as part of their 60-man roster for the shortened 2020 season. On August 12, Slegers was selected to the active roster. In 2020, Slegers recorded a 3.46 ERA in 11 regular season appearances, and pitched to a strong 1.80 ERA in five innings across three playoff games.