Will Klein baseball

William Boone Klein (born November 28, 1999) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played for the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics. Klein attended Bloomington High School North in Bloomington, Indiana. As a senior in 2017, he pitched only 17+2⁄3 innings due to a broken thumb but still struck out thirty batters with a 1.98 ERA. He was not selected in the 2017 MLB draft and enrolled at Eastern Illinois University, where he pitched over three seasons, posting ERAs of 6.62, 5.11, and 3.33 before the 2020 season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Klein was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the fifth round (135th overall) of the 2020 MLB draft, signing for $200,000. He made his professional debut with the Quad Cities River Bandits in 2021, going 7–1 with a 3.20 ERA and 121 strikeouts over 70+1⁄3 innings. He was named the Royals' Pitching Prospect of the Year that season. In 2022, Klein missed the start of the season due to shin splints but returned later as both a starter and reliever for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, posting a 1–1 record with a 10.51 ERA over 43+2⁄3 innings. In 2023, he was promoted to Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers, where he went 1–5 with a 4.62 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 64+1⁄3 innings. He was selected to the 2023 All-Star Futures Game. On November 14, 2023, the Royals added Klein to their 40-man roster to ...