Kyle Harrison (baseball)

Kyle Christopher Harrison (born August 12, 2001) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Giants selected Harrison in the third round of the 2020 Major League Baseball draft, and he made his MLB debut with them in 2023.

Early life
Kyle Christopher Harrison was born in San Jose, California, and grew up in Orange County, California, and then from 2009 on in Danville, California. His father is Chris Harrison, and his mother Kim played college field hockey for San Jose State University.

His maternal grandfather is former left-handed major league pitcher Skip Guinn, who pitched in 68 games in parts of three seasons for the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros in 1968–71. He has a younger brother Connor “Bear” Harrison.

In 2015, Harrison was a member of the Tri-Valley All-Stars, which won the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series. Four years later Harrison had the top earned run average (ERA) in the 2019 WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup pitching for gold-medal winning Team USA, as he did not allow a run in 10 innings, while striking out 12 batters.

Harrison attended De La Salle High School in Concord, California in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a sophomore in 2018 he was 9–1 with a 1.17 ERA, as in 54 innings he had 71 strikeouts and walked 23 batters. He was named East Bay Athletic League Pitcher of the Year, a 2018 MaxPreps National All-American, and Cal-Hi Sports All-State Underclass. As a junior in 2019 he was 10–0 with a 1.26 ERA for the Spartans, with 103 strikeouts in 61 innings, and also played first base. As a senior in 2020 he was 2–0 with an 0.78 ERA and pitched nine innings with 18 strikeouts before the season was ended due to COVID-19. In his high school career, he was 21–1 with a 1.19 ERA in three years, striking out 192 batters in 124 innings, and held batters to a .137 batting average. He had a deceptive low below-three-quarter-slot delivery. By his senior year in high school his fastball touched 94 mph, and he also threw a high-70s slider, a change-up, and a curveball.

Draft and minor leagues
The San Francisco Giants selected Harrison in the third round of the 2020 Major League Baseball draft. Harrison signed with the Giants for a signing bonus of $2.5 million rather than play college baseball at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The Giants more than tripled their offer from the $710,000 slot value to sign Harrison.

Harrison made his professional debut in 2021 with the Low-A San Jose Giants of the California League. Over 23 starts, he led the league with a 3.19 ERA and 15 hit batsmen and went 4–3 with 157 strikeouts (2nd in the league), and 14.3 strikeouts per nine innings (second) over $98 2/3$ innings. He was named the 2021 Low-A West Pitcher of the Year, the CAL Pitcher of the Year, a CAL Post-Season All Star, and an MiLB.com Organization All Star.

He was ranked # 3 in the Giants 2022 MLB Prospect Rankings. In 2022 Harrison was an All-Star Futures Game selection. He began the year with the High-A Eugene Emeralds, and in seven starts had 59 strikeouts in 29 innings (striking out half of the 118 batters he faced) and a 1.55 ERA. With the Class AA Richmond Flying Squirrels while almost five years younger than the average player in the league, as he was the youngest player in the history of the franchise and turned 21 in August, he had a 3.11 ERA in 84 innings (18 starts) with 127 strikeouts (6th in the league; as he struck out 36.4% of the batters he faced), for 13.6 strikeouts per 9 innings, and he generated a 41% whiff-and-miss percentage with his fastball. His 186 aggregate strikeouts in 2022 were the second-most of any pitcher in the minor leagues, and he led the minor leagues in both strikeouts per 9 innings (14.8; the highest rate for a pitcher in the minors–minimum 100 innings–in a season dating back to 1960) and whiff percentage (39.8%). Baseball America selected him as the Giants' 2022 Minor League Player of the Year, and as the best pitching prospect in the Eastern League, and he was again an MiLB.com Organization All Star.

In his minor league career through 2022, Harrison was 8–6 with a 2.93 ERA in 48 starts, as in 211.2 innings he struck out 343 batters (14.6 strikeouts per 9 innings).

Before the 2023 season he was ranked the #18 prospect in the minor leagues by MLB.com. He started the 2023 season pitching for the Triple–A Sacramento River Cats, where at 21 years of age he was six and a half years younger than the average ballplayer. In 2023 Harrison was again an All-Star Futures Game selection. Before he was called up to the major leagues, he was the Giants' # 1 prospect, and the # 1 left-handed pitching prospect in the minor leagues per MLB.com, and with the River Cats in 20 starts he was 1–3 with a 4.66 ERA with 105 strikeouts (6th in the Pacific Coast League) and 48 walks in 65.2 innings, with 7.1 hits per 9 innings (10th), 14.4 strikeouts per 9 innings (2nd), a 35.6% strikeout percentage, and a 16.3% walk percentage.

San Francisco Giants (2023–present)
Harrison made his major league debut on August 22, 2023, against the Philadelphia Phillies. At 22 years old, having had his birthday ten days prior, Harrison was the youngest pitcher for the San Francisco Giants since Madison Bumgarner in 2009. In 3.1 innings gave up five hits, two runs, hit a batter, and had five strikeouts, as 43 (14 of which were swings and misses) of his 65 pitches were strikes. His fastball reached 97.6 mph; the only other left-handed Giants starter who threw that fast a pitch in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008) was Carlos Rodón.

On August 28 at Oracle Park, in a 4–1 win over the Cincinnati Reds, in his second career start, Harrison pitched $6 1/3$ shutout innings and struck out 11 batters, becoming the youngest pitcher (22 years, 16 days) to do so since Madison Bumgarner (22 years, 8 days) did so on August 9, 2011, when he struck out 10 Pittsburgh Pirates batters. He also became just the second pitcher in Giants history to have double-digit strikeouts in his second career start, the other having been Jeff Tesreau in 1912.

Pitching style
Harrison pitches with a low three-quarter release, and has a mid-90s rising four-seam fastball that reaches 98 mph at times, a low-80s slider with a big lateral break (his best swing-and-miss pitch), and a developing mid-80s one-seam changeup.