Cardinals sign Navy ace Mitch Harris; will report after duty
JUPITER, Fla. — The St. Louis Cardinals selected Mitch Harris in the 13th round of the most recent draft unsure if they could sign the Naval Academy’s ace. Now that they’ve signed him, it’s not clear when he’ll play.
The righthanded starter, one of the most successful pitchers at Annapolis, and the Cardinals agreed on a minor-league contract Saturday, the club announced this afternoon. Harris graduated from the Naval Academy last spring, and he was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy last May. Harris is currently serving as a weapons office on the USS Ponce. His ship will deploy to seat later this year. The agreement, according to the Cardinals, puts the pitcher under contract for when he completes his military service.
RHP Mitch Harris, Navy ace, signed a contract with the Cardinals on Saturday; it takes effect when his military service commitment ends.
This has been a lengthy process for the Cardinals as they continued to pursue a pitcher who, according to multiple publications, had the talent to be a higher-round pick if not for the service requirement. Check out the original blog entry on Harris here (”Serving Country, Pitching for Cardinals“).
The Cardinals tried several times to work out a way to get Harris in uniform for this past season, including a plan to put him on the New York-Penn League team, where he would pitch when not fulfilling his military obligations. Nothing worked, and this past summer he said he expected to report for duty, his chance at a pro baseball career drifting off in the wake of his service.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Mitch,” Cardinals farm director Jeff Luhnow said in a release from the team.” We feel that he can make a strong contribution to our organization once his service to our country is complete.”
Academy grads are bound to five years of active duty after graduation.
Harris, 23, pitched four years for Navy — hence, the reason why the Cardinals could sign him long after the deadline for signing junior-eligible draft picks — and he averaged 11.78 strikeouts per nine innings. He finished 20-13 overall with a 2.51 ERA in 222 1/3 innings. In each of his four years on Navy’s staff, Harris struck out more batters than innings pitched and his 291 total Ks is the second-high in academy history.
More on the signing in an update to this entry later and in tomorrow’s paper.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Five years????
So barring an early discharge, the earliest he could play would be when he’s 27-28 years old?
Don’t get me wrong, his stuff looks great, especially his low low HR/9 rate. But five years????
I guess the hardship discharge didn’t get approved?
Oh, well, when Obama disbands the armed forces, perhaps Harris will be available then. (Yes, I’m kidding.)
He’s an integral part of Mo’s plan for 2009.
Well you never know. If this guy can keep his arm in pitching shape he might be worth the wait. Let’s hope he can because that can only be good for us.
Too bad the military couldn’t designate a buy-out clause whereas the graduate could pay for not having to do full-time active duty. This could work not only for athletes but scientists and such. Two caveats: The buy-out money would have to be money they earned in their profession (no parents money) and they’d still have a military obligation if absolutely needed.
haven’t there been football stars that were drafted from Annapolis, who somehow got out of their 5 year contract?
Well, if he could grow to be 7 ft tall he could do like David Robinson and get out early because he didn’t fit in anything.
Yea, I remember David Robinson didnt have to serve five years. The Oakland Raiders had a running back, cant remeber the name, I dont think he served five years.
Just a thought, Roger Staubach was worth the wait.
All due respect for sure.. but this hardly seems like news. It also seems wierd that so much time was spent on trying to work out a contract with this guy when he probably won’t pitch for the cards’ minor leagues until he is 28. Maybe this guy is phenominal, I have no idea.. but five years is a loooong time to wait and be bound to a contract. I have no idea how this kind of thing works though, and maybe he’ll get some kind of early discharge.. but still, this seems like non-news.
Too bad DeWallet was a Bushie instead of an Obamacon (lot of good it did him getting some slack for Harris). Still they ought to turn Claire McCaskill on to this project, she’s an insider with the White House and on the Armed Services Committee. And Obama is a White Sox fan, not a cubbie…