Riley Pint’s wait is over.
The Johnson County native and one-time St. Thomas Aquinas baseball star has been called up to the major leagues as a relief pitcher after a tumultuous seven-year journey through the minor leagues that included injuries, the COVID-19 pandemic and a brief retirement.
Pint now joins the big league roster of the Colorado Rockies, the team that drafted him No. 4 overall with much local fanfare seven years ago.
Pint briefly retired from baseball two years ago
- Though Pint was a highly touted prospect out of high school, he struggled early in the Rockies’ minor league system, never making it up above High-A ball, one of the lower levels of the minor leagues.
- Injuries also posed challenges, and in 2021 he abruptly announced his retirement from baseball, telling the Denver Post at the time that he “needed to get away for a little bit and re-find myself.”
- But he returned to the Rockies’ organization in 2022, showing new promise. He advanced as high as Triple-A and seemed poised to break into the big leagues last year, but a late season injury stymied those hopes.
He was the Rockies’ top draft pick in 2016
- Pint was the fourth overall pick in the 2016 Major League Baseball draft after a legendary pitching career at St. Thomas Aquinas.
- He helped lead the Saints to a state title his senior season in 2016, in which he was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year and a high school all-American.
- Reports at the time showed he routinely topped 100 miles per hour on the mound, and he ended his senior year having given up only three runs all season.
Pint will be managed by a former Royals pitcher
- Pint is now on a Colorado Rockies squad managed by former Royals pitching star Bud Black, who was a member of the 1985 World Series-winning team.
- The team, which plays in the National League, also includes former Royals World Series winner Mike Moustakas.
- Pint, a 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound right-hander, is listed as a relief pitcher on the Rockies’ roster.
