Brady Muller became the third Windy City ThunderBolt pitcher in less than a week to sign with a Major League organization when it was announced during Saturday night’s game that his contract had been purchased by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Muller, 24, had just thrown seven shutout innings against the River City Rascals when his manager, Ron Biga, came out to remove him from the game and inform him that he was moving into the Diamondbacks system.
At the time of his signing, Muller leads the Frontier League in wins (5), ERA (1.36) and WHIP (0.93). He ranks second in opponents’ batting average (.201) and seventh in strikeouts (41). He had thrown 16 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run over his final three starts and he struck out a career-high ten batters in his penultimate appearance on Monday at Gateway.
Muller was in his third season with the ThunderBolts after signing with the team on August 28, 2015 out of Montana State University-Billings. He went 8-11 over his Windy City career with a 3.64 ERA in 25 games (23 starts). He was a mainstay in the 2016 rotation and put up a 4.48 ERA with 67 strikeouts in 84.1 innings. He threw a complete game one-hitter in his second start of the season, a win at Schaumburg.
In a busy week for the ThunderBolts, Muller joins Kyle Von Ruden (White Sox) and Kevin Lenik (Royals) as Windy City pitchers who have move on to affiliated ball since Tuesday. Three players signed in season is the most for a ThunderBolts team since 2014.
