Former St. Thomas Aquinas star gets called up to the majors two years after retiring
As a senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Riley Pint watched the Royals win the 2015 World Series. Now he’s teammates with a star from that team: Mike Moustakas.
Pint on Sunday was recalled from Triple-A by the Colorado Rockies, nearly seven years after being a first-round pick in the Major League Baseball draft. And he made it to the big leagues two years after a brief retirement.
“Here’s a former (first-round) pick right within the top five in the country in 2016, and his path has been well-documented,” Rockies manager Bud Black told MLB.com. “We don’t have to rehash that because it’s quite a good story. I hope it continues on the positive side, because there was a valley in there that was pretty deep and he’s risen out of it.
“It’s a great tribute to him that he’s here. And I think there’s a bright future because there’s big talent in there.”
Pint was the No. 4 overall pick out of St. Thomas Aquinas in 2016, the highest a Kansas City-area player has been drafted.
Unfortunately for Pint, injuries and poor results weighed on him and he retired from baseball in June 2021. It was short-lived. Pint found the break from baseball recharged his batteries, and he returned to the Rockies the following March, pitching above Class A ball for the first time in 2022.
This season at Triple-A Albuquerque, Pint had a stretch of seven straight scoreless relief appearances with 13 strikeouts in nine innings pitched. Unfortunately, two rough outings made his ERA jump to 7.41, but he caught the attention of the Rockies’ brass.
Pint pitched last Wednesday, allowing an unearned run in an inning with three strikeouts and two walks. On Saturday night, he was summoned by Albuquerque’s pitching coach and feared the worst.
“I got called in by the pitching coach to the manager’s office last night after the game and actually I thought I was in trouble,” Pint told reporters Sunday. “They were asking me if my arm felt fine because I hadn’t pitched in a couple days and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good. Like, I don’t think anything’s wrong.’ And I was sort of second-guessing myself a little bit.
“But they were just kind of wearing me out a little bit. And they told me that they wanted me to read a text message on their phone, and it had my flight itinerary to Denver. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I was definitely shaking in my boots a little bit because I thought I was in trouble, but it ended up working out pretty well.”
Pint, 25, was added to the Rockies’ 40-man roster after last season.
While Pint didn’t take a conventional path to the majors, he said stepping away from baseball proved to be beneficial.
“Now, I just got back to what I’ve done since I was a kid — compete and go out there and don’t overthink and just do my thing,” Pint told the Denver Post’s Kyle Newman. “I was in a cycle there for a while where I just couldn’t get out of my own way. Everything I did, I was always thinking about something else while I was trying to get outs out there.”
Now Pint is focused on getting outs in the major leagues as a lifelong dream has come true.
