User:Jmasessa/Trey McNutt

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Kenneth Trey McNutt is a minor league baseball player for the Tennessee Smokies, the Double-A affiliate for the Chicago Cubs. He was listed as the number three prospect in the organization by Baseball America. Married to Stephanie McNutt with a daughter name Jaycee Dae.

College Career
McNutt attended Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he posted an earned run average of 3.38 while getting 75 strikeouts in only 13 games in 2009, averaging over one strikeout an inning. He was drafted by the Cubs in the 32nd round of the First-Year Player Draft in 2009, going 980th overall.

Lower Minor League
McNutt started in the Rookie League in Arizona where he went 0-1 despite posting a 0.00 ERA in six games. He was sent up to the Single-A affiliate in Boise soon after. For the Boise Hawks, he went 3-0 while posting a 1.33 ERA.

Upper Single-A
After success in lower Single-A leagues, McNutt was moved into regular Single-A to play for the Peoria Chiefs. There he went 6-0 with a 1.51 ERA in 13 games. He was named the starting pitcher for the Midwest League Western Division at the All Star game in June of 2010, where he took his only loss in a Chiefs uniform. His success in Peoria again got McNutt promoted on June 28, 2010. He went to Daytona, where he went 4-0 with a 2.63 ERA while still maintaining a large number of strikeouts with 49 in only nine games. On August 22 he was again promoted, this time to Double-A in Tennessee.

Double-A
For the remainder of the 2010 season, McNutt pitched for the Tennessee Smokies. In three games, he went 0-1 with an ERA of 5.74. In the 2011 season, McNutt went 1-2 with an ERA of 2.55 and continued to pitch well, giving up no home runs and still striking out many he faced.

The Future
Being one of the top prospects in the organization and within the top 50 in all of baseball comes with its benefits. McNutt was given an invite to the Cub's major league Spring Training camp, giving him a chance to make the big league club. Although he was sent back down to the minor leagues on March 15, he was given the opportunity and learned a lot from it through talks with major league coaches and staff

In the 2011-2012 offseason, McNutt was rumored to be a primary target of the Boston Red Sox as compensation for their general manager Theo Epstein leaving in the final year of his contract to take a job with the Cubs. In February, with no deal between the clubs in finalized, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig stepped in to moderate the deal. On February 13, it was reported that both teams had submitted arguments regarding the deal to the commissioner, and that a decision was likely to occur by the end of the week.