Richard Bleier

BIOGRAPHY

Richard Bleier was born April 16, 1987, in Davie, Florida. He is a pitcher in the MLB.

In high school, he was a State of Florida All Star in 2005. In his junior year of college at Florida Gulf Coast University, he was selected unanimously as the Atlantic Sun Conference Pitcher of the Year and First Team All Sun Conference. The Texas Rangers selected Bleier in the sixth round of the 2008 Major League Baseball draft. In 2009, his 125 strikeouts were the second-most in the Rangers' minor league system, and he gave up the fewest walks-per-9 innings in the California League. Bleier signed with the Washington Nationals organization before the 2015 season, pitched for the Harrisburg Senators that year, and had the most wins (14) and the lowest ERA (2.57) of all minor league pitchers in the Nationals minor league system. He was a 2015 post-season Class AA Eastern League All Star, and was voted a Washington organization All Star by MiLB.com.

Bleier was called up to the majors for the first time on May 26, 2016, by the New York Yankees. He debuted in the majors on May 30, becoming the 27th Yankee to wear uniform number 50. His debut followed nine minor league seasons in which he pitched 956 innings. Bleier was one of 12 Yankees pitchers since 1919 to make his debut after turning 29 years old and the first since Amauri Sanit in 2011. He became the third former FGCU player to play in the majors, joining pitchers Chris Sale and Casey Coleman.

Yankee manager Joe Girardi said: "I can use him either way – for distance or I could use him if I wanted (to pitch to) a couple lefties. He’s a ground ball guy. He gets a ton of ground balls.... He was a starter down there, so he’s built up." In 23 relief appearances in 2016, he had two holds and a 1.96 ERA, and left-handed batters hit .150 against him.