Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
The Chicago Cubs were in need of a fifth starter, and Thursday, they called up Eddie Butler from the minor leagues. Nationally, people are wondering who Butler is? For Radford University baseball fans, we know who he is.
Butler is from Chesapeake, Virginia and in his senior year at Greenbrier Christians Academy, he was taken by the Texas Rangers in the 35th round of the Major League Baseball Draft. He declined and instead enrolled at Radford University.
His junior year at RU was probably the most successful with a 7-4 record and a 2.20 earned run average, and was named the Big South Conference Pitcher of the Year.
Butler was then taken in the 2012 first round of the MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies. This time, he signed with the MLB team and received a $1 million signing bonus.
He would become an all-star pitcher his first year with the rookie league team of the Rockies. He posted a 7-1 mark and had an ERA of 2.13 with 55 strikeouts.
The following year, he manhandled high-A batters and was named to the 2012 All-Star Futures Game from the Advanced California League and finished the season with the Rockies’ Double-A team.
He was invited to the Rockies major league camp the following year but spent most of the season with the Double-A Tulsa Driller. He did receive a call up to the big leagues late in the 2014 season but finished the year on the injured reserve list with a shoulder injury.
Butler would win the fifth starter’s spot for the Rockies, coming out of the 2015 spring training. But his luck seemed to be out in left field as his ERA ballooned to 7.17.
In February, he was traded to the Cubs and pitched six strong innings on Friday to pick up a 3-2 win over the Cardinals.
