Over the years, the Tampa Bay Rays have featured plenty of pitchers with wipeout sliders, impossible spin rates, and who can paint the outside corner at 99 mph. Sick pitchers, if you will. Then there is Jonathan Heasley, whose approach to sickness is a bit more literal.
Heasley made his debut for the Rays on Wednesday night against the Baltimore Orioles, the same day that he was called up to their big league roster for the first time, and two days before being cut from it again. And almost immediately, he overshadowed any pitching performance with some icky gut stuff. Three pitches into his outing, Heasley bent over and threw up on the mound at Camden Yards. Then, after a quick regroup, he did it again.
And again.
It was an unwelcome surprise to everyone except, it transpires, Heasley himself. It turns out that vomiting on the mound is a thing that Heasley just sort of…does.
Jonathan Heasley, Professional Vomiter
According to Rays sideline reporter Ryan Bass during the television broadcast, Heasley had already warned the club that this sort of thing occasionally happens. Bass said Heasley used to vomit during high school football games and had previously done it while pitching for the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate, the Durham Bulls. Heasley described himself as having âa weak stomach,â especially when adrenaline and nerves start surging.
Examples of Heasley hawking his guts up on the mound prior to Wednesday exists. For example, in August 2022, when Heasley was pitching for the Kansas City Royals against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he decided to re-examine his dinner in a moment that MLBâs own highlight package diplomatically called “Heasley unwell on the mound”. (Vomiting, apparently, is deemed a highlight.)
Heasley has explained that the issue was not any specific illness so much as an unfortunate physical response that periodically overtakes him. âThereâs nothing I can do to stop it,â he told reporters. âIt just kind of hits me sometimes.â Heasley suggested that adrenaline was the likely trigger; first date nerves on his Rays debut probably will not have helped with that.
In the NBA, all-time Boston Celtics great Bill Russell would reportedly vomit before every game, to the point that if ever he didn’t, his coaches would become nervous. Russell, though, would do it before games, not during. Many a Major League pitcher has been sick on the job – Hunter Greene, for one, while former Rays starter Adrian Houser has released his own line of nerve sick over his career – yet Heasley’s particularly explosive effort on Wednesday raises the bar for baseball vomit.
Oh And He Also Pitches A Bit, Too
Despite his penchant for regurgitation, Heasley has spent years grinding through professional baseball trying to establish himself as a reliable major-league arm. Initially a 13th-round draft pick by Kansas City out of Oklahoma State back in the 2018 MLB Draft, Heasley climbed steadily through the Royalsâ farm system over the next three years, and debuted in the majors in September 2021.
His best opportunity in the majors came during the 2022 season, when the rebuilding Royals gave him extended starts. The raw stuff occasionally flashed promise – particularly a fastball-slider combination that could miss bats – but consistency never quite arrived. Heasley would finish that season with a 5.28 ERA and 1.49 WHIP in 104.0 innings across 21 starts, and was moved to the bullpen thereafter.
After the end of the 2023 season, the Royals traded Heasley to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Cesar Espinal, but he managed only four more unsuccessful Major League appearances in relief before being designated for assignment in July 2024. A brief stint with the Chicago White Sox would be next, followed by a return to the Royals’ minor league set-up, before joining the Rays in April as a starter at Durham.
Wednesday night’s performance was, therefore, Heasley’s first major-league appearance in roughly two years. The kind of opportunity players spend months chasing on buses and in anonymous Triple-A clubhouses. Adrenaline was always going to be high. You’d be nervous too. Unfortunately, adrenaline appears to affect his digestive system more than most. Jonathan Heasley may be carving out a niche as baseballâs premier mound vomiter. A true hurler. Insert your own pun here.
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