11 Former Diamond Dawgs in the MLB in 2024
America’s favorite pastime is back, and Mississippi State will be featured on the biggest stage once again.
The Major League Baseball season began on Thursday and 11 former Diamond Dawgs are on the Opening Week rosters with seven of those being active for game one. State has begun putting more and more players on the biggest baseball stage and even more have the capabilities to get up to the main roster at some point in 2024.
Here is a glance at who Bulldog fans should be watching this season.
RHP Kendall Graveman (10 seasons) – Houston Astros (Placed on 60-Day Injured List)
The Bulldogs’ ace pitcher on the 2013 team that made it all the way to the National Championship game, Graveman was a ground ball machine with State in 2013. Since arriving to the league, however, he’s been a chameleon and it’s translated into long and healthy career.
Graveman has seen his fastball velocity tick up to the high 90’s in recent years and he’s been a key part of five different organizations over the course of 10 years. After beginning his career as a starter for the Toronto Blue Jays and Oakland Athletics, Graveman transformed himself into a legitimate back of the bullpen arm with the Seattle Mariners, Astros and Chicago White Sox and now he’s back with the Astros for a second stint.
Since becoming a setup or closer pitcher, Graveman’s ERA has routinely stayed at or below 3.00 and he’s picked up 24 saves over the course of the last three years.
Unfortunately, Graveman could be out the entire season this year due to shoulder surgery. Best wishes to the reliever for a full recovery and hopefully he returns soon.
RHP J.P. France – Astros
Carrying the banner for State in Houston this year will be France.
The former Diamond Dawg was one of the best stories in the American League last year. After transferring from Tulane to Starkville for his senior year, France was a big reason why the Bulldogs made a run to Omaha in 2018 and he turned a 14th round pick that year into a rise up the ranks for the next few seasons.
After a successful tenure with AAA Sugar Land for over two years, France finally heard his call to the main roster last season with an injury pulling him into the rotation. France churned out quality start after quality start and finished the year with 23 starts and an 11-6 record.
The New Orleans native threw 136.1 innings as he got a good dose of the MLB and he surrendered 58 earned runs and just 47 walks to 101 strikeouts. Adding a sinker ball in the offseason to a full arsenal of pitches will make him an even more complete starter for the team this season.
RHP Chris Stratton (9 seasons) – Kansas City Royals
As Stratton is closing in on a decade pitched in the MLB, the former SEC Pitcher of the Year has put together a solid career while also becoming quite the journeyman.
Stratton was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 2012 and made his debut on the main roster in 2016 before becoming a starter for 2017 and 2018. Stratton has since pitched for the Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers.
His last two stops were arguably his best of his career at St. Louis and Texas. He finished 7-1and stuck out 104 batters to 37 walks. He now joins a KC team that will have a trio of former Bulldog teammates on the roster.
2B Adam Frazier (9 seasons) – Royals
Shortly after becoming the NCAA hit king for the 2013 season, Frazier would rise up the ranks and become a steady contributor for the Pittsburgh Pirates beginning in 2016.
The last three seasons, he’s starting to get his flight wings with a stop in San Diego, Seattle and Baltimore now followed by the Royals. He got his first hit in Kansas City on Opening Day Thursday and should be a good piece for KC in that lineup and in the field.
The former sixth round pick to the Pirates, Frazier is just 149 hits shy of 1,000 for his career and is a lifetime .269 hitter with a .331 OBP. Frazier has gone over 100 hits in five of his nine seasons and has hit 56 home runs after failing to knock one out during his entire career in Starkville. His 13 long balls last season were a career high.
OF Hunter Renfroe (9 seasons) – Royals
Like his former teammates Stratton and Frazier, Renfroe also started his career in 2016 and has been a traveler as well in recent years.
The San Diego Padres chose Renfroe 13th overall after a stellar junior season helping the Bulldogs to the National Championship game with Frazier. Renfroe has played for Tampa Bay, Boston, Milwaukee, Los Angeles Angels and Cincinnati over the years and now he has arrived in KC with his former teammates.
The Copiah Academy alumni has 702 career hits, 177 home runs and 162 doubles in his career.
RHP Brandon Woodruff (8 seasons) – Milwaukee Brewers (Placed on 60-Day IL)
Another pitcher that is going to be out for quite some time this year is Woodruff who has dealt with nagging injuries now the last two seasons.
When healthy, Woodruff is one of the very best starters in the entire MLB. The Tupelo-area native never fully realized his potential in Starkville, but has flourished during his time in the league with a 46-26 record, a strong 3.10 ERA in 115 starts and 788 strikeouts to just 176 walks in 680.1 innings.
Last year could have been the best season of Woodruff’s career if not for an injury that had him out for the bulk of the middle of the season. He finished the year 5-1 with a career-low 2.28 ERA in 11 starts and pitched 67 innings striking out 74 and walking 15.
Woodruff signed a new two-year deal to stay with the team back in February, but he had to have shoulder surgery that has sidelined him on the Injured List. There is no decision yet on whether or not the ace will pitch this season or not.
RHP Dakota Hudson (7 seasons) – Colorado Rockies
Hudson was yet another former first round pick for the Bulldogs when the Cardinals drafted him 34th overall back in 2016.
Despite an arm injury that ended 2021, Hudson had been a relatively routine starter for the Cardinals in his first six years in the league. He pitched in 114 games over the years and started in 79 of those.
Hudson will be competing for the starting rotation this spring and summer.
1B Nathaniel Lowe (6 seasons) – Texas Rangers (Placed on 10-Day IL)
Lowe has worked his way into the conversation as one of the best defensive first basemen in the MLB, but the Golden Glove winner is also a heck of a hitter.
Lowe’s time in Texas has been especially strong as he has three seasons in which he’s batted .262 or better including a year over .300 in 2022. This past season, Lowe was a big part of the Rangers winning a World Series.
In 2023, Lowe set a new career high with 38 doubles, 82 RBI and 93 RBI and is batting .273 over his career with 544 hits, 98 doubles, 73 home runs, nine triples and 260 RBI. With a Silver Slugger award in 2022 and a Golden Glove in 2023 to go along with a World Championship, Lowe is quickly becoming one of the most decorated former Bulldogs in the league in a long time.
OF Brent Rooker (5 seasons) – Oakland A’s
At long last, Rooker finally got his extended stay on a team during the season and it paid off.
One of only two Triple Crown winners in the history of the SEC, Rooker set college baseball on fire during his 2017 season but has been battling staying on an MLB roster his first four years.
2021 was the only season in which Rooker had played more than 20 games, but the A’s gave him a shot all of last year. During the year, Rooker would play in 137 games with 114 hits, 61 runs scored, 30 home runs, 20 doubles, 69 RBI and 49 walks while batting .246, all of which were career highs.
Rooker was named to the All-Star Game for his work in the first half of the season and was starting on Opening Day.
LHP Ethan Small – San Francisco Giants (Placed on 60-Day IL)
Small is the third former Bulldog who isn’t active for the first week of the season as the former SEC Pitcher of the Year was placed on the 60-day injured list with a strain to his oblique.
He will have to rehab that injury and is expected to be out for the first two months of the season.
The Giants picked up Small in the offseason after he spent his first few years pitching in the Brewers organization. Small was a first round pick back in 2019 after helping lead the Diamond Dawgs to back-to-back College World Series appearances in 2018 and ’19.
He made his debut in the MLB in 2022 and started in two ball games and he pitched in two more last season for the Brewers. In four appearances, Small has thrown 10.1 innings, given up 17 hits, 10 runs, 10 walks and 13 strikeouts. He notched his first career save last season.
2B Jordan Westburg (2 seasons) – Baltimore Orioles
Finally, the newest member of the State to the Show has a chance to have as good a career as anyone on the list.
Westburg came in during the middle of the season last year and fit like a glove with the Orioles as he played in 68 games. The second baseman batted .260 with 54 hits along the way while driving in 23 runs on 17 doubles, three home runs and two triples.
A member of the 2018-20 teams, Westburg went from the 30th pick overall to making it into the league after virtually two seasons in minor league baseball. Adding his expertise on the defensive end, Westburg is going to factor into Baltimore’s plans for a long time.
