Stephen Kolek

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Stephen James Kolek

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Stephen Kolek was taken by the San Diego Padres from the Seattle Mariners in the 2023 Rule V Draft. He made his major league debut in the second game of the season-opening series between the Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers played in Seoul, South Korea, on March 21, 2024. In two-thirds of an inning, he gave up two runs on a walk and a hit-by-pitch, a performance that was not too much out of line in a game that finished with a score of 15-11 in the Padres' favor. He appeared in 42 games for San Diego, all in relief, and went 3-0, 5.21 while logging 46 2/3 innings. He did not see any action during the postseason.

He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2018 amateur draft out of Texas A&M University. He was part of the Aggies team that played in the 2017 College World Series. After being forced to sit out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, he was traded to the Mariners and spent the 2021-2023 seasons in their system. He was 6-13, 4.51 as a starter for the AA Arkansas Travelers in 2022, but was moved to the bullpen in 2023, when he went 4-2, 4.23 in 41 games for the AAA Tacoma Rainiers after 5 games with Arkansas. The Padres claimed him in the Rule V draft on December 6th when the Mariners failed to promote him to their 40-man roster following the season.

In 2025, he started the season in the minors, making five starts for the AAA El Paso Chihuahuas, going 1-0, 6.38, before getting called back to San Diego. The Padres were off to a great start when he made his debut for them by starting his first major league game on May 4th. He tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates to earn credit for a 4-0 win. He did even better in his next start, against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 10th. He became the first pitcher in Padres history to pitch a shutout in the notoriously hitter-friendly ballpark, and did so while the Padres' bats wouldn't stop putting runs on the board. He ended up a 21-0 winner, easily the largest margin of victory and most lopsided shutout in franchise history, and fell just shy of achieving a Maddux, needing 104 pitches to complete the game in spite of some long stretches sitting in the dugout while his teammates ran up the score. On May 27th, he earned his third win of the season under very different circumstances, as he first gave up six runs to the Florida Marlins in the 1st inning; however, he did not give up anything else after that and lasted until one out in the 6th, by which point the Padres had erased the deficit and taken a 7-6 lead. That lead held until the end of the game and he received credit for the 8-6 win. It also made him the first pitcher to earn a win after giving up six or more 1st-inning runs since Mark Buehrle in 2006; even better some of the runs given up by Buehrle in that inning had been unearned, so to find the exact equivalent, one had to go back to Bartolo Colon in 1999!

He is the brother of Tyler Kolek.

Notable Achievements[edit]

  • NL Shutouts Leader (2025)

Further Reading[edit]

  • AJ Cassavell: "Padres rewrite team record books to back Kolek's shutout", mlb.com, May 11, 2025. [1]
  • AJ Cassavell: "No quit Kolek, Padres regroup vs. Marlins for huge comeback win", mlb.com, May 28, 2025. [2]

Related Sites[edit]

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