Rangers Infielder Brock Holt Threw A 31 MPH Eephus Pitch And Made Some Very Weird MLB History

Position players pitching in Major League Baseball is always worth a look, and as the dog days of summer stretch out we’re getting a lot of opportunities to see baseball players try things out on the mound. The latest is Brock Holt, the Texas Rangers utility man who broke out the extremely mild cheese on Saturday in a game against the Oakland Athletics.

With the As up 12-3, Texas called on Holt to take the mound for the third time in his career and burn through an inning. Though playing at third base lately, Holt has shined as an outfielder an basically anywhere he’s asked to on the field over his career, and he’s pitched before. But Saturday reminded us that Holt has one of the biggest utility belts in the majors, including some wild pitches when he needs to throw them.

On his first pitch of the inning, Holt threw an eephus pitch way out of the zone. It took a while, but it eventually came down and landed in there for a strike.

Holt actually threw a scoreless inning, varying his pitches a bit but throwing some extremely mild heat in the process. Six pitches thrown in the inning were slower than 40 miles per hour, all of which beat the slowest pitch recorded since they started keeping track in 2008. According to Sarah Lang of MLB.com, the 31.1 mph strike is the slowest pitch called for a strike in history.

The overlay of his heat — a 77 MPH “fastball” — is pretty wild.

Holt, who pitched one of the weirdest scoreless innings in baseball history, seemed to have plenty of fun with the whole thing. He even asked the umpire if he wanted to check his glove for sticky substances.

Holt has played every position but catcher in his major league career. There’s still time.