Trading Cards and Trading Stories: Position Players Pitching

I always enjoy quirky and charming cards, whether they’re baseball cards, some other sport or even a non-sports property. One of the things that can make them fall into this category for me are the photos used. While there are entire products dedicated to awesome photos like Stadium Club, and the newer Topps Black & White, this article instead is shining the light on a very small group of trading cards with photos depicting position players pitching, an idea born out of a discussion in the Prospects Live Discord server. I’m excluding any two way players such as Shohei Ohtani or Babe Ruth, or players that were primarily pitchers but would occasionally play in the field like Michael Lorenzen, or even pitchers that got rare hitting appearances, often pinch hitting, simply because they were very competent with the bat like Madison Bumgarner. The final exclusion is another obvious one - players, and I’m not sure how many there are, that were at one time pitchers and transitioned to hitting (or vice versa), like Rick Ankiel.

There are surprisingly quite a few baseball cards where we get photos of pitchers hitting. It’s really no surprise since pitchers were part of the batting order in the National League up until 2021 outside of interleague play in American League parks and the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. And even in the American League, it was not until 1973 that the designated hitter became a rule. I enjoy these pitcher hitting cards because they are not common, even if the rarity isn’t exceptionally great either. And there are collectors out there that do make a point of collecting these fun cards. 

But the rarer scenario is one I’ve been unable to unearth a comprehensive checklist showing a full list of baseball cards depicting the position player pitching. The “Triple P”. I’ve dug around and the ones listed below are the ones I’ve found so far. I’m going to guess there are more out there, maybe in the Golden Mirror short prints of the last few years, or from the other millions of cards and products through the years. I’m a bit surprised we didn’t get a Kiké Hernandez Topps Now card this season with his modified pitching helmet, but maybe that will end up in a Golden Mirror or Stadium Club release in the future. If you know of any that I didn’t find, drop a comment below!

2016 Topps Series 1 Pressed Into Service

In 2016 Topps Series 1, they did a whole insert set dedicated to position players pitching. The base insert is pretty common with these falling one in every blaster and a checklist of 10 players. There were also much tougher versions - a relic version, an autographed version, and a relic autograph version. Each of those groups only had five of the ten players in the checklist (denoted below). The base cards are cheap - you can usually find the entire base set for $5 or less. If you come across the rare non-base cards, those will typically not be cheap. Not hundreds of dollars expensive, but not single digit price points either. The cards, players, and situations in this insert set:

• Mitch Moreland (Texas Rangers) - Moreland’s first position player pitching scenario arose in 2014. With the Rangers losing 12-1 to the Rockies in Colorado, Moreland came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th inning. He sat down the Rockies in order, starting with a line-out from Jordan Pacheco, a deep flyout from Corey Dickerson, and a ground-out from Rockies great Charlie Blackmon in which Moreland actually got the putout on the dribbler in front of the mound. Moreland touched 94 mph with his fastball - not bad at all! That’s actually not surprising as Moreland was a two way player in college at Mississippi State and he actually pitched some after being drafted in instructional league play before committing to hitting full time. Moreland had two more pitching appearances in his career, but both were from years after this card was released. One final note here is that the photo on the card is a standard fielding image of Moreland - it’s not showing him in the pitching motion. He’s wearing his first base glove, and he’s in the Rangers blue uniform - the Rangers were in their grays that day, and Moreland had on a standard fielding mitt while pitching. That sadly is one of a few missed opportunities with these specific-themed cards, as we'll see as we go on. Base Only

• Wade Boggs (New York Yankees) - The Hall of Fame third baseman had two pitching appearances in his career - once while a member of the Yankees in 1997 at 39 years old and then in the final year of his lengthy career while with the Rays (then the Devil Rays) in 1999 as a 41 year old. This card commemorates his 1997 outing when the Yankees were losing 12-4 to the Angels in Anaheim. Boggs came in the bottom of the 8th inning and after giving up a leadoff walk to Luis Alicea, he got Tim Salmon and Garrett Anderson to groundout before striking out Todd Greene swinging to end the scoreless inning. Most notably, Boggs was primarily throwing a knuckle ball, and the photo on the card truly looks like he’s maintaining that knuckle ball grip all the way through the end of his pitching motion. Base, Relic, Auto, Relic Auto

• José Canseco (Texas Rangers) - The controversial slugger had one pitching appearance in his career, and that was enough to either convince himself or any manager in his future to never use him again. Somehow his manager at the time, Kevin Kennedy, was convinced that one time because apparently Canseco had pitched in high school. It was 1993 and the Rangers were losing 12-1 to the Red Sox in the bottom of the 8th inning when Kennedy called Canseco’s number. He proceeded to walk the bases loaded and ended up giving up three runs to further cement the loss (15-1) for the Rangers. Canseco did get Hall of Famer Andre Dawson in the twilight of his career to flyout to end the inning, so I guess there is some silver lining here. Except there wasn’t one, as a month later, Canseco’s season was done as he needed Tommy John surgery, and the pitching outing was blamed as the cause of the injury. Base, Relic, Auto, Relic Auto

• Michael Cuddyer (Minnesota Twins) - The Twins first round pick in 1997 out of the Virginia prep ranks, he, like most top end prep baseball players, was a pitcher and hitter. Not having pitched since high school, he would regularly badger Twins manager Ron Gardenhire to give him a shot in blowout games, and he finally got his one and only appearance on July 25th, 2011. Down 20-5 in the bottom of the 8th inning in Texas against the Rangers, Cuddyer gave up two hits and a walk, but was able to work out of a one out bases loaded jam to keep any more runs off the board. Cuddyer’s diverse arsenal reportedly included a four seamer, cutter, curve, and a change-up, which, given his prep pitching history, makes some sense. Base, Relic, Auto, Relic Auto

• Paul O’Neill (Cincinnati Reds) - There’s very little out there on the 5-time All Star’s singular pitching appearance back in 1987. The back of the card mentions how O’Neill’s father was a minor league pitcher (in the 40’s and 50’s) and how he gave up a three run home run (to Ozzie Virgil) and struck out two batters. One of those batters happened to be Ken Griffey Sr. Not much else to say here, but just like me, Topps apparently couldn’t find much as the photo they used is barely baseball related. O’Neill has a Reds cap and shirsey on - almost like he’s hanging out with the team but not taking part in baseball activities on the day the photo was snapped. Almost negative points for including this one in the set, Topps. Base, Relic, Auto, Relic Auto

• Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals) - A two way player in his youth and an 18 game winner at the height of his pitching prowess in the minors, a shoulder injury forced Musial to abandon pitching and play full time in the outfield. Fast forward to 1952 and the final game of the season with both the Cardinals and Cubs out of the pennant race. Cardinals ownership, trying to sell tickets with nothing on the line for wins or losses, came up with a gimmick. With their star player having a pitching history, they cooked up the idea to have Musial pitch to a single batter, against Musial’s wishes. After rookie Harvey Haddix faced the first hitter, Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky called in Musial from center field, sending Haddix to right field, and right fielder Hal Rice sliding over to center. Left-handed hitting Frank Baumholtz came to bat, but fully aware of the nature of the stunt, evened the playing field by walking into the right-handed batter’s box. Musial barely warmed up, tossed his first pitch in there where Baumholtz could easily hit it, even from the right side, and Baumholtz hit a grounder to third base. An error by third baseman Solly Hemus allowed Baumholtz to reach first base. Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky then came out and reversed the moves he had just made the batter before, and that was the end of Stan Musial’s one and only MLB pitching outing. The photo on the card is just a standard one of Musial - nothing to do with him pitching. The one photo I have seen that I think is from this single pitch is far away and not really something you’d see on a trading card given the photo angle. In addition, Musial wasn’t truly “Pressed Into Service” here - this is the weakest card in the set because of that, but it’s of one of the greatest players in baseball history, so I understand why Topps wanted to include him. Base, Auto

• Josh Harrison (Pittsburgh Pirates) - The long-time utility player, Harrison ended up with six different pitching appearances in his 13-year playing career. This card commemorates his first appearance in 2013, and he did not get another one until he was towards the end of his career in 2022 and 2023. This appearance was in the bottom of the 8th inning with the Pirates down 10-1 to the Rockies in Colorado. With two outs and runners on first and second, Clint Hurdle made the move to send reliever Jared Hughes to the showers after facing eight batters through an inning and two thirds. Harrison came off the bench and was able to get pinch hitter Corey Dickerson out on a deep fly ball on a 1-2 count. The only other interesting note, as said on the back of the card, was that this was the Pirates’ first use of a position player pitching in almost a decade. Base Only

• Garrett Jones (New York Yankees) - In his final season in the Majors, Jones came over from first base in the top of the 9th inning with one out and the Yankees losing 15-2 to the Rangers. He was replacing Branden Pinder, a reliever that had already pitched the full 8th inning and faced the first batter in the 9th. Sailing his first warmup pitch to the backstop, it was a bit of a bumpy road as Jones walked the first batter he faced in Delino DeShields and hit pinch hitter Leonys Martin two batters later. However, he did get out of the inning unscathed. The only other thing of note is that Joe Torre made the decision to move Alex Rodriguez from the DH spot to third base in the ninth inning shuffling to get Jones on the mound - an interesting scenario since that meant the Yankees were giving up the DH position in the batting lineup, especially interesting if the Yankees put on an historic comeback (Narrator: “They did not”). Base Only

• Ichiro Suzuki (Miami Marlins) - One of the greatest hitters in baseball history was reportedly a very good high school pitcher in Japan. He had one official regular season pitching appearance in a 28 year career, in the final game of the 2015 MLB season and his first season with the Miami Marlins. With the Marlins only down 6-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning against the Phillies and both teams playing out the string in losing seasons, Ichiro convinced manager Dan Jennings to give him the opportunity he regularly asked for every year of his pro career. He ended up giving up one run on two hits, but was able to complete the inning with minimal damage. He featured a fastball in the 86 - 88 mph range, a changeup in the high 70’s, and a breaker in the high 70’s as well. Of all the position players pitching videos that I watched of players in this article, Ichiro was by far the most well-suited to pitching. Just a few more ticks of velocity and I think he would have been considered for a pitching role more often. It was a bittersweet watch, though, because after the inning, the Marlins player that spent the most time with him, enjoying the moment, telling jokes, and just having fun with him, was Jose Fernandez. Ichiro has made other pitching appearances, most notably in an NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) All-Star game prior to joining MLB. Reportedly the opposing manager pinch hit against Ichiro with a pitcher - no idea if that was him having fun or him showing his displeasure. But the one that stands out is Ichiro in retirement has become a big supporter of female amateur baseball in Japan. Over the past few years, he’s run a yearly exhibition game with the best female high school baseball players facing off against retired Japanese ball players, including the likes of Hideki Matsui and Daisuke Matsuzaka. In the 2024 edition, Ichiro pitched a complete game, still throwing in the mid-80’s and hit a total of 141 pitches in the game. For the Pressed Into Service insert, this is by far my favorite card of the bunch. Ichiro is an amazing player and an awesome person on top of it. Add in the photo they used giving off the most obvious pitching motion in the set and it’s an easy choice. Base, Relic

• Nick Swisher (New York Yankees) - Apparently Swisher had pitched as a freshman in high school according to the back of this card, and almost 15 years later, he had a return to the mound in the bottom of the 8th inning with the Yankees losing 15-5 to the Rays in Tampa. Throwing fastballs in the 78 mph - 80 mph range, Swisher got through the inning without giving up a run, allowing one hit, one walk, and getting a strike out of Gabe Kapler. Base, Relic Auto

The rest of the cards are not inserts, but from on demand products (online purchase) or packed out as short prints or super short prints into Flagship products. In order of release date:

2019 Topps Series 2 Short Print Image Variation

• Willians Astudillo (Minnesota Twins) - The Tortuga was a popular player during his MLB playing days and just over two weeks into his MLB debut with the Twins, Astudillo was called to the mound to mop up in a blowout loss to the Rays. Losing 14-6 in the top of the 9th inning, Astudillo gave up five more runs including two home runs - one to Carlos Gómez to lead off the inning and a two-run home run to Jake Bauers. Astudillo actually had six more relief appearances later in his career, and only gave up one run across them. Maybe he worked on his arsenal or something after getting roughed up in his first appearance. This card isn’t that rare, and even though it’s a rookie card, it can be had for cheap, typically around $5 - $10. 2019 Topps Series 2 Short Prints were roughly one per Hobby or Jumbo Hobby box, and I would regularly hit them in hanger boxes as well, so it's no shock to find them for cheap these days.

2019 Topps Now Card #576 (July 25th, 2019) - Print Run 511 cards

• Steve Wilkerson (Baltimore Orioles) - A back and forth game in Anaheim against the Angels which saw a Wilkerson almost end up as the fall guy for misplaying a Kole Calhoun drive to centerfield with the bases loaded that led to the Angels tying the game 3-3 in the bottom of the 7th inning. Back and forth it went until the Orioles went ahead 10-8 in the top of the 16th inning - but in a game of that length, the Orioles had burned through all of their pitchers, with reliever Tanner Scott being the last man standing in the 15th inning, pitching to seven Angels hitters and getting tagged for three runs in the process. On comes Wilkerson in the 16th, who had already made two previous relief appearances for the Orioles in blowout losses in the two weeks previous. Wilkerson sat the Angels down in order, getting a flyout from Brian Goodwin, a groundout from Kole Calhoun, and a flyout from future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols to earn the Save. That was the first, and from what I could tell (drop it in the comments if you know of any other instance) the only time a position player has ever recorded a Save in an MLB game. A unique situation, and at the time, probably not a huge news maker, even if the card did sell about twice as many as the typical Topps Now card would that wasn’t showcasing a big rookie (Pete Alonso/Vladdy Jr.) or a popular player (Shohei Ohtani, etc.). Still, at just over 500 cards in existence, it’s a relatively scarce card and the cheapest example on eBay at the moment is $40 with shipping.

2021 Topps Now Card #145 (April 28th, 2021) - Print Run 1,222 cards

• Anthony Rizzo (Chicago Cubs)/Freddie Freeman (Atlanta Braves) - Down 10-0 in the 7th inning against the Braves, the Cubs decided to pull the plug and bring in the position players. First up was Anthony Rizzo, who got a groundout from Jair Camargo, walked Ronald Acuña Jr., and then faced a red hot Freddie Freeman who was 4-4 with a double and a home run to that point in the game. Neither player could help but smile and laugh throughout the at bat - seriously, take a minute to go watch it. Freeman ended up striking out swinging on a breaker and that was the end of Rizzo’s appearance, as he switched positions on the field with Matt Duffy (the second of three position players the Cubs had pitch that night). This one is a bit off the board for me because it doesn’t depict Rizzo pitching, but that is essentially the subject matter here, so it gets included. With a decently plentiful print run, this card can usually be purchased in the $10 to $20 range. 

Topps Project 70 by Brett Jamieson

• Brett Phillips (Tampa Bay Rays) - Phillips plays baseball with a genuine love for the game, and in a situation where it’s almost always about the least serious a baseball game can be when a position player is pitching, Brett Phillips is at his best. In a game on July 2nd, 2021, in the bottom of the 8th inning, with the Rays trailing the Blue Jays (in Buffalo) 10-1, Phillips came in to soak up the remaining pitching reps for the first time in his career. One of the best parts of it was that he came out and threw a 94 mph heater for his first pitch. And then every subsequent pitch was a 47 - 50 mph floater. He ended up giving up one run on two hits and two walks and there was never a dull moment. This outing inspired Topps Project 70 artist Blake Jamieson to almost immediately create a Brett Phillips position player pitching card for his next Project 70 submission, which ended up going live on the Topps website a little over two weeks later on July 19th, 2021. If you did not see the game, you might wonder why Phillips is wearing a red cap on the card - and that’s because it was the day after Canada Day. I will admit my ignorance here to how things exactly work, but in this scenario, I’m guessing Toronto (in Buffalo) and the visiting team wore red Canada themed hats on Canada day (July 1st) and at least the day following. These cards had a print run of 1,264 base, which sold for $20 a pop from Topps plus shipping for single card sales if I remember correctly. Today, you can pick these up for somewhere between $5 - $10. Rainbow foil parallels numbered out of 70 can often be had for between $10 - $20. 

2021 Topps Chrome Super Short Print (SSP)

• Mike Trout (Los Angeles Angels) - I hesitate to even include this card because Mike Trout has never once pitched in a major league game. However, when you scour the internet for position player pitching cards, you will often find this one mentioned. The photo is from the August 4th, 2020 match-up between the Angels and Mariners in Seattle. During warm-ups, the photographer captures Trout in what I assume is a pitching motion/wind-up. In that game, which he did not pitch in, he went 1 for 3 with a solo home run in the first inning, for posterity's sake. As it’s a low volume print run Super Short Print, the card tends to go in the $100 - $150 range raw, landing it the neighborhood of one of the two most expensive cards of position players pitching, even if it's a stretch to put this card in that category.

2022 Topps Now Card #188 (May 15th, 2022 - Print Run 2,423) and 2022 Topps Update Series Super Short Print (SSP)

• Albert Pujols (St. Louis Cardinals) - The future Hall of Fame slugger got one opportunity as a position player pitching but received two cards to remember the occasion. The designated hitter is a “position” even if they don’t technically play the field, so this does qualify as a position player pitching. However, in a very similar situation to the Garrett Jones/Alex Rodriguez scenario mentioned above, once Pujols came in to pitch in the top of the 9th inning, the Cardinals forfeited the Designated Hitter spot in the lineup. With the Cardinals ahead 15-2 against the visiting Giants, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol called Pujols' number for his first and only career pitching outing. It did not go great, as Pujols gave up two home runs and four runs before finally getting out of the inning and ending the game with a score of 15-6. Thankfully, even though it’s the same event these two cards are pulled from, Topps chose different pictures for the cards. The Update SSP is the better one in my opinion, as you get the full view of Pujols pitching with the mound visible. The Topps Now card cuts off around the knees, so you don’t get the full impression of Pujols pitching like you do with the Update SSP. For the Topps Now base cards, you can find them for around $5 - $10. Not every Topps Now card came in parallels in 2022, but this card did, so parallels will obviously be priced higher depending on their rarity. The Topps Update Series SSP is rare AND desirable given the player popularity and it being a very unusual photo of Pujols pitching - in raw form they will typically go anywhere in the $100 - $200 range, and PSA 10’s will go for even higher, although kudos to the buyer who made the most recent purchase at under $200. 

2022 Topps Now Card #216 (May 22nd, 2022 - Print Run 751)

• Yadier Molina (St. Louis Cardinals) - The Cardinals great and best defensive catcher of his generation, Molina finally got to see what it looked like on the other side of the pitching equation in 2022, not once, but twice. This card commemorates the first opportunity he had which was May 22nd, 2022 in a game in Pittsburgh against the Pirates. With Yadi having a day off up until the 9th inning and the Cardinals up 18-0 before needing to get the final three outs, Cardinals manager Oli Marmol brought Molina in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. Just to add a bit more fun to the situation, Albert Pujols, who was the DH at the time in the game, hopped behind the plate during Yadi’s first few warmup pitches. Molina got all three outs to finish out the game and the victory, but gave up two home runs and four runs in the process (to match teammate Albert Pujols’ results from the week previous). He was throwing 45 mph to 65 mph and just trying to keep the ball in the zone because the ball was slippery as there was some rain falling during the inning. One final note is that we get to see Yadi wearing the Memorial Day/Salute to Service hat in the photo, and I know there are fans that like to collect cards with that representation. This card is plentiful and could be regularly picked up for between $5 - $10.

In the early years of professional baseball, position players pitching wasn’t that unusual of a circumstance. As the game became more of a career, and more specialization became the norm, it became less and less frequent. Indeed, there have been entire baseball seasons where there was no instance of a position player pitching, with the latest being in 2006. Over the last decade-plus, however, it became a viable strategy to help save bullpen arms to use position players to soak up the lowest of all low leverage innings.

Considering this as an issue, the MLB and MLBPA agreed to rule changes leading into the 2020 season that restricted when players not designated as a pitcher or a two way player on the MLB roster could make a pitching appearance. Delayed because of the pandemic, it did not actually go into effect until May of 2022. The rule stated that position players were only allowed to pitch if a game went to extra innings or if there was a six run or more score differential during the first nine innings of play. In 2023, this rule was updated to allow position players to pitch only in extra innings (no change from previous) or in scenarios where their team was losing by at least eight runs or their team was winning by at least ten runs in the 9th inning.

There are still rumblings by fans and articles written that position players pitching should be banned outright. I doubt it ever happens, but if it does, these position players pitching cards could become a thing of the past, and that would be no fun at all!

Credit for much of the Stan Musial backstory goes to Bill Pruden's article on the SABR website.