Drabek’s son set for MLB debut
PITTSBURGH – Another reminder of how much time has passed since the Pirates were relevant will occur Wednesday night when Kyle Drabek makes his major-league debut, pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Orioles in Baltimore. Yes, Kyle Drabek is the son of Doug Drabek, the last pitcher to start a postseason game for the Pirates when he toed the rubber in fateful Game 7 of the 1992 National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves. The Pirates haven’t been in the postseason or even had a winning season since then.
Kyle Drabek was a small part of those good old days as he would hang out in the clubhouse at Three Rivers Stadium with his brother, Justin, older by one year, and the two would wrestle on the floor in front of their father’s locker, beating the tar out of each other.
Kyle Drabek was 4 at the time, so he doesn’t remember any of it, though he has heard the stories from his father, who won the NL Cy Young Award in 1990 and is now pitching coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ short-season Yakima farm club in the Northwest League.
“I know they were great teams,” Drabek, 22, recalled earlier this summer while pitching for the Blue Jays’ Class AA New Hampshire farm club in the Eastern League. “And I know my father loved playing in Pittsburgh. A lot of difference places where we go in the league, people will tell me they remember when my dad pitched and how they were Pirates’ fans and cheered for him. That’s pretty neat.”
While Drabek is reminiscent of his father with his blond hair and solid build, he has the facial features of his mother Kristy and also inherited her temperament.
Doug Drabek was noted for his cool mound demeanor. Nothing ever flustered him.
Conversely, Kyle Drabek is fiery. He shows emotion on the mound, will yell at hitters after he strikes them out and occasionally shout at the home plate umpire is he disagrees with a ball or strike call.
“I got a good mix of both my parents’ genes,” Drabek said with a smile.
Drabek is certainly reminiscent of his father as a pitcher from a performance standpoint as he has gone 33-19 with a 3.41 ERA in 77 minor-league games. This season, he was 14-9 with a 2.94 ERA in 27 starts for New Hampshire.
Drabek was Philadelphia’s first-round draft pick in 2006 and was then was traded to Toronto last winter as part of the Roy Halladay deal. Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos said he wouldn’t have traded his ace pitcher without getting Drabek back in the deal.
Funny, but former Pirates GM Syd Thrift said the same thing on Thanksgiving night in 1986 when he traded his ace pitcher, Rick Rhoden, to the New York Yankees for a package of three minor-leaguers that included Doug Drabek.
Like father, like son.
Herald-Standard sports correspondent John Perrotto is editor-in-chief of BaseballProspectus.com