RVC hurler pitched for Kansas City Royals

Kevin McCarthy was ready to begin his offseason.

His Omaha Storm Chasers Triple-A baseball team had just concluded its season on Sept. 5, and he already had a plane ticket back to New York.

But, strangely, he was told by Manager Brian Poldberg to go back to his hotel instead of the airport.

“He goes, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but don’t get on your flight home,” recalled McCarthy, who has lived in Rockville Centre with his father since 2006. “‘Just hang out, go back to the hotel. They don’t want you to leave yet.’”

“They” were the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals. McCarthy felt extremely nervous as he waited for more information. Later that day, the Storm Chasers’ trainer texted him his new flight plans … to Minnesota.

The 24-year-old right-hander was heading to the major leagues.

“I was like, ‘Wow!’” McCarthy said. “I called my parents right away, and they met me out there.”

He joined the Royals in Minneapolis and was immediately overwhelmed at the sight of his new teammates, including All-Stars Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez.

“I kind of skirted over to the guys that I played with [in the minors], trying to get some sort of normalcy so the nerves aren’t just killing me,” he recalled. “To see those guys walk around—they’d say ‘What’s up?’ They’d say ‘Congrats.’ It’s just a little bit star-struck. I’m not just meeting them, they’re my teammates. It’s a little crazy.”

His parents didn’t see him make his major league debut, because he didn’t pitch in either of the last two games of the Royals’ series against the Twins. His friends, though, were on hand when he finally got the call in the opener of the following three-game set in Chicago against the White Sox.

The Royals were trailing 7-2 in the eighth inning, the perfect situation for a rookie to get into the game in a mop-up situation. McCarthy sat in the bullpen wondering if this would be the night he would finally play. The phone rang, and manager Ned Yost told him to begin warming up.

“I think I was more nervous running out to the mound,” McCarthy said. “Once I got actually on the mound, I felt pretty calm. I had some players behind me that I’ve played with in the past. Once I got up there and saw them, it was just like another game.”

He retired the only batter he faced —Tim Anderson, the 17th pick in the 2003 draft— on a ground out to third base. The next night, he struck out Anderson with runners on second and third to end the sixth inning. The Royals rallied with three runs in the seventh and won 6-5, giving McCarthy his first career victory.

“It was awesome,” he said. “All of the guys were so ecstatic for me. They were just really excited. It’s not every day that someone gets their first major-league win.”

McCarthy is originally from Malverne and was a four-year varsity baseball player at Kellenberg High School in Uniondale. Manager Chris Alfalla described him as a “late bloomer,” and called on McCarthy as the first relief pitcher out of the bullpen during his junior year.

He moved into the starting rotation as a senior, and Alfalla said he was among the Long Island leaders in all statistical categories.

“He really didn’t start throwing hard until his senior year,” he said. “You could tell he had potential. He hadn’t really grown much or worked out that much in the weight room, so there was a lot of potential there. But for him to be throwing like 96 [miles per hour] in the major leagues, that’s just incredible.”

In the summer before his senior year, while playing in a recreational league, McCarthy caught the eye of an assistant coach from Marist, who complimented his arm after the game. That fall, he received an invitation to a prospect camp the college runs each year and quickly impressed Manager Chris Tracz.

Success continued to follow McCarthy at Marist. In his junior year, he was named the MAAC Co-Relief Pitcher of the Year, and made the All-MAAC second team and the conference All-Academic team. The Royals took notice, and selected him in the 16th round of the 2013 draft. He is the first Red Fox player to appear in a major league game.

He found out he was drafted the way only a modern athlete could—on the internet.

“I was at my brother’s Little League game,” he said. “I kept refreshing the news feed on the draft ticker and there it was. Then [Royals scout] Keith Connolly phoned me.”

Like most newly drafted players, he was sent to the team’s rookie league club in Burlington, N.C., where he won four of the 10 games he appeared in. His minor league career also took him to Lexington, Ky.; Wilmington, Del. and Springdale and Surprise, Ariz., before he split the 2016 season with Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Omaha.

His pitching coach at Omaha was former New York Yankee Andy Hawkins.

“He was great,” McCarthy said of Hawkins. “He helped me slow down the game a lot and try to think about the pitches I throw instead of just throwing them [and] have a purpose with each pitch to set up the next one. He taught me how to elevate to change eye levels. That’s something I found extremely useful.”

When McCarthy got to the Royals, he quickly realized he had to be more strategic with his pitch selection. “Big league hitters have a little bit better of an approach,” he said. “They’re not necessarily reacting all the time, but they look for that one pitch, and if they get it, they’re not going to miss it. Sometimes it’s sort of a guessing game whereas in Triple-A and Double-A, I’ve noticed guys are a lot more aggressive.”

In 10 appearances with Kansas City, McCarthy went 1-0 with a 6.48 earned-run average, mostly due to facing the eventual American League-champion Cleveland Indians twice.

“They were very good,” he said. “They have some good hitters in that lineup, and they put the ball in play.”

Being a major leaguer finally sank in for McCarthy when he made his debut in Kansas City against Oakland on Sept. 14.

“That was ridiculous,” he said. “The fans there are great, and you can tell they’re really happy about the home-grown talent. They were just ecstatic.”

He got used to the major league lifestyle as well. “The travel was a smidge better, getting on those big-league flights,” McCarthy said, smiling. “You bus from the field and they drop you off right at the plane and pick you up wherever you are. It’s a lot easier.”

He will soon be heading to Santo Domingo to pitch for Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. “My main objective is to get my slider down,” he said. “That separated me from being dominant.”

McCarthy is on the Royals’ 40-man roster, and will attend their spring training in 2017, hoping to stick with the team for good.