C.J. Riefenhauser

Charles Joseph Riefenhauser was born on January 30, 1990, in Yonkers, New York, to Chuck Riefenhauser, an elevator mechanic, and Mary Lou, a nurse. He was raised in Mahopac (population 7,755), 47 miles north of New York City. Unlike some ballplayers who get their nicknames after establishing a career, Riefenhauser was named for his father, Chuck, but called C.J. from an early age.

Riefenhauser grew up throwing and batting left-handed. He was small for a professional baseball player, listed at 6-feet and 195 pounds during his major-league career. Even in high school, he didn’t have a blazing fastball, but still dominated his league during his senior season in 2008. He pitched 52 innings (a typical high-school pitcher in a warm climate like Florida would pitch at least twice that number) for a record of 9-1 and an ERA of 1.88. Riefenhauser said, “At Mahopac High School, every coach I had from freshman to senior year was always teaching the basics, having fun and getting after it.”1

Riefenhauser didn’t play summer ball, but his high-school team traveled to the Carolinas for tournaments against stronger teams that played fall and spring baseball. The Mahopac team’s stats for the year listed him as a pitcher-first baseman, but his batting average of .148 suggests that most of his value to the team was as a pitcher.

Riefenhauser’s performance wasn’t strong enough to entice a major-league team to draft him out of high school. He looked for a college where he could showcase his pitching skills. He told an interviewer, “I wasn’t much of a student. I just wanted to play ball.”2 He first attended Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, not very far from his home in Mahopac. After a semester, he transferred to Guilford Community College in Guilford, North Carolina, before finding his way to Chipola College in Marianna, a small town in Florida’s panhandle, for the 2009-2010 season. Chipola’s baseball team won the 2006-2007 JUCO national championship, and in 2009 was ranked third in the nation, a much better showcase for his talents. He said going to Chipola was “the greatest decision of my life,” since both professional and college scouts followed Chipola, and could see him pitch.3

That season, Riefenhauser pitched 64 innings in 17 games, with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 56/27. He finished with a 4-5 won-lost record and a 4.92 ERA. He showed enough to become one of the top recruits for the 2010-2011 season for Elon College, a small North Carolina school. Riefenhauser signed a letter of intent for Elon, but the Tampa Bay Rays drafted him with their 20th-round pick in the 2010 draft. At first, he thought he’d honor his commitment to attend Elon, but after he went home for the summer, he said, “I talked it through with my family and decided there might not be another shot and you never know what’s going to happen, every pitch might be your last. So I decided to start my career, give it my all and see what happens.4

Riefenhauser pitched 11 games in the summer of 2010 for the Princeton (New Jersey) Rays in the Rookie Appalachian League, with a record of 1-0 and an ERA of 2.84. The Rays moved him up to the Bowling Green (Kentucky) Hot Rods at the end of the season, and he earned one win in two games pitched with an ERA of 1.00.

He started the 2011 season at Bowling Green. He pitched 101⅓ innings, primarily as a starter, and went 6-5 with a 2.31 ERA. That earned him a promotion to the Advanced-A Port Charlotte Stone Crabs, where he faltered a little, going 1-3 with a 4.14 ERA.

Despite a losing record, 7-8, with a 4.76 ERA in the first part of the 2012 season, the Rays promoted Riefenhauser to the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits, where he posted a 1-1 record with a 3.44 ERA. Sometime during the 2012 season, the Rays coaching staff decided to convert Riefenhauser, who had been a starting pitcher since high school, into a reliever.

Riefenhauser said the Rays organization gave him all the support and help he needed to succeed. “They will never give up on you,” he said. “They always try their best to get the best out of you. They make you a better pitcher.”5

He started the 2013 season in Montgomery and dominated opposing batters. Pitching in relief, he went 4-0, with 11 saves and a minuscule 0.51 ERA. His performance earned him a promotion to the Triple-A Durham Bulls and an appearance in the 2013 Futures Game, which features minor-league stars from around the country.

Pitching in the Futures Game marked an important milestone in Riefenhauser’s career. He was not originally slated to be on the roster, but when Rays prospect Taylor Guerrieri dropped out due to fatigue, Riefenhauser got the call. He was still thrilled.

“I’m not mad about taking his place, let me tell you that, Riefenhauser told a reporter at the game. “It’s an honor to be included, to be recognized.”6 In 2013 the Futures Game was played at Citi Field in Queens, the home of the New York Mets. Since that was less than 100 miles from his hometown of Mahopac, a group of over 100 fans from Mahopac joined the crowd and cheered wildly when Riefenhauser entered the game in the eighth inning to preserve his team’s 3-2 lead. He retired the side one-two-three on six pitches.

“I was just trying to throw strikes and hope I didn’t leave one right over the middle so they didn’t hit me too hard,” he said. “My goal going into it was trying not to be nervous or overwhelmed. I haven’t been the first- or second-round guy, the top prospect kind of thing. I’m just going in there and battling all the time.”7 Rays farm director Mitch Lukevics gave a scouting report on his pitching prospect at the game: “C.J. Riefenhauser has good stuff, 91-92 MPH (fastball), he has the ability to spin (a curveball) and he’s trying to work on a changeup for right-handed hitters. But what this kid brings, he has some inside toughness. He loves to compete. He’s a great story because he’s another young guy that will will himself to the big leagues.”8

After the Futures Game, Riefenhauser was sent to Triple-A Durham for the rest of the season, finishing his first stint in Triple-A ball with a 2-1 record and 3.05 ERA in 20⅔ innings pitched.. The Rays added him to their 40-man roster in 2014. He started at Durham, but the Rays called him to the majors in early April. Riefenhauser told interviewer Milo Kaminsky how he heard about it:

“My manager called me at midnight after a game in Norfolk, Virginia. He got a text at dinner with his whole family saying I’m getting called up. I was sitting in the hotel room watching something, I can’t remember and when he told me, his whole family is screaming in the phone congratulating me. I was just speechless, I had no emotions and I didn’t know what to do. I called my parents and that’s when it hit me. Then the next day I have to wake up early, but I barely got any sleep because I was staring at the ceiling all night thinking. They flew me first class on a flight to Florida and I’m looking around and thinking, ‘This is the life.’ Everything is taken care of for you, you have a driver taking your suitcase and you don’t pick up your bag from when you land until you get to the field. It’s a pretty unbelievable feeling.”9

Riefenhauser made his debut on April 19, in the seventh inning of a laugher against the New York Yankees at Tropicana Field. The Rays were up 14-1 and manager Joe Maddon saw a low-pressure opportunity for his new rookie. He entered the game after two outs in the seventh and got Alfonso Soriano to ground out to third. He then pitched a perfect eighth, retiring the Yankees on three fly balls.

The next day didn’t go as well. The Rays and Yankees were tied 1-1 going into the top of the 12th. Heath Bell, pitching for the Rays, started the inning by walking Yangervis Solarte, and Maddon called once more for Riefenhauser. He got Brett Gardner to hit back to him for a force at second, and the next batter, Brian Roberts, on a lineout to short. Still one on, but two out, he needed one more batter to get out of the inning. He didn’t get it.

Brian McCann singled to put runners on first and third. Riefenhauser walked Jacoby Ellsbury intentionally to load the bases, and then walked Dean Anna unintentionally to score the go-ahead run for the Yankees. That was all for him, and Josh Lueke came in from the bullpen and gave up three more runs, all of which were charged to Riefenhauser. His first two days in the majors, which started so full of promise, ended with him having an ERA of 13.50, and a ticket back to Durham.

Riefenhauser earned another call-up by pitching well, with a record of 3-3 and a 1.40 ERA, with one save over 30 games. The Rays have a history of developing a stable of solid Triple-A relievers, but that has meant over time that if a pitcher doesn’t make a positive impact soon, the team tries someone else. In April 2014, the Rays were coming off four straight 90-win seasons and expected to get back to the postseason. They didn’t have time to let a young pitcher make mistakes.

By September the Rays were out of the pennant race (they finished fourth in the AL East, with a 77-85 record), and the team brought Riefenhauser back. Between September 16 and the end of the season he pitched 3⅓ innings over five games, He gave up five hits and two earned runs, finishing with a 0-0 record and a 5.40 ERA. That was an improvement over his short stint in April. His Fielding Independent Pitching average was only 2.83, and as a 24-year-old pitcher who proved he could pitch well at Triple A and battle in the majors, Riefenhauser had a chance to make the major-league club in 2015.

That season was a transitional year for the Rays organization. Manager Joe Maddon took advantage of a contract clause that allowed him to opt out of his deal if general manager Andrew Friedman left the club. Maddon became manager of the Chicago Cubs, and in 2016 led the Cubs to their first World Series win since 1908. Kevin Cash took the Rays’ reins, and led the team to an 80-82 record, an improvement over 2014.

Riefenhauser again started the year on the Durham roster but joined the Rays on April 17. He pitched in relief on April 17 and 18, giving up three earned runs in 1⅓ innings. On April 19 he joined over a dozen Rays on the disabled list. Left-shoulder inflammation was the reason, and while Riefenhauser hoped to get back on the mound after the minimum 15-day stay, he remained on the DL for 41 days with a pulled oblique muscle. When he was activated in May, the Rays sent him to Durham for a rehab stint. They recalled him on June 12.

Two days later, on June 14, Riefenhauser earned his only major-league win. Nate Karns started for the Rays and Chris Sale for the Chicago White Sox. Both hurlers pitched well through six innings. At the end of the sixth, the Rays were behind 1-0, after a run-scoring single by Yolmer Sánchez in the top of the second that drove in Gordon Beckham.

Rays manager Cash sent Riefenhauser to the mound to start the seventh inning, and he held the White Sox scoreless. He got Sanchez to ground out, then gave up a single to catcher Tyler Flowers. Riefenhauser now faced center fielder Adam Eaton, the leadoff hitter. Eaton forced Flowers at second base for the second out, and Rays catcher René Rivera threw out Eaton trying to steal. Riefenhauser’s clean inning kept the Rays close.

The Rays went ahead in the bottom of the seventh.. Sale walked Steven Souza, and Asdrúbal Cabrera followed with a two-run homer to put Tampa Bay ahead. They put two more runners on but could not convert them into runs. Now that the Rays had the lead, Maddon sent Kevin Kiermaier in to play center field in the top of the eighth, and Steve Gelz to the mound. Gelz retired the White Sox one-two-three.

The Rays threatened again in the bottom of the eighth on singles by Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe, but Souza grounded into a double play and Cabrera flied out to end the inning. Kevin Jepsen pitched a scoreless ninth for the save, and Riefenhauser earned his first and only major-league victory. The Associated Press story of the game focused on Chris Sale, who struck out 12 in his losing effort, and Cabrera’s home run.10 If the reporter got a quote from Riefenhauser, it didn’t make the story.

Reflecting on the win in 2023, Riefenhauser said, “It’s great to tell everyone I beat Chris Sale, but it was Asdrubal Cabrera who beat Chris Sale with a homer, and the rest of the bullpen that shut them down. In the clubhouse after the game, we all had a great time, and they gave me the scorecard because it was my first win.”11

The next day, June 15, the Washington Nationals came to town and the Rays started Erasmo Ramírez. Riefenhauser relieved Ramírez in the seventh and pitched another scoreless inning, giving up only a walk. Ramírez got the win. Riefenhauser made his third appearance in three days in the third inning of the Rays’ next game against the Nationals. Alex Colomé

started for the Rays and gave up six runs in the first two innings. Manager Cash sent Riefenhauser out to start the third inning, and he held the Nationals scoreless in the third and fourth innings.

Pitching two innings for a third straight day of relief would tax any pitcher, and when Cash sent Riefenhauser out to start the fifth, he gave up a homer to Bryce Harper, got Wilson Ramos to ground out, and then walked a man. Cash sent Enny Romero in to relieve, and he gave up two runs in the rest of the fifth, one of which was charged to Riefenhauser. The Rays ended up losing 16-4.

The Rays sent Riefenhauser back to Durham, and recalled him on July 1, once again putting him in to relieve Colome in a losing effort. Cleveland was beating the Rays 5-0 going into the top of the eighth. Riefenhauser gave up a walk (after a foul pop was dropped), a double, and a three-run homer before getting two outs, after which Cash replaced him. Riefenhauser returned to Durham; he returned to Tampa Bay in September. In between he spent more time on the disabled list with a strained oblique muscle.

The Rays took a good look at Riefenhauser in September. He pitched 8⅓ innings over 11 games, with a decent 2.16 ERA. He reduced his ERA for the year from 9.95 to 5.52, which gave him final 2015 stats of 1-0, 5.52 ERA, but with a FIP of 6.27. Although he couldn’t have known it at the time, 2015 was Riefenhauser’s last year in the majors.

He pitched well in Durham in mostly a middle relief role, earning a 4-2 record and a 2.86 ERA with one save. Riefenhauser was only 25, and some major-league teams looking for a lefty specialist thought he could help them.

The Rays were not one of those teams in 2015. In November they packaged him with pitcher Nate Karns (who started Riefenhauser’s only major-league victory) and minor-league center fielder Boog Powell to the Seattle Mariners for shortstop Brad Miller, first baseman Logan Morrison, and pitcher Danny Farquhar. The trade turned out well for the Rays. Morrison had his best year ever in 2017, hitting 38 homers. Brad Miller hit 30 home runs in 2016, and after a down year in 2017, was traded to Milwaukee for Ji-Man Choi, who became one of the Rays’ fan favorites.

In December Seattle traded Riefenhauser and right fielder Mark Trumbo to Baltimore for catcher Steve Clevenger. Perhaps to sharpen his skills, Riefenhauser pitched for Margarita in the Venezuelan Winter League. He strained his shoulder, but tried to rehab and pitch through it. He struggled through four games, ending up with an 0-1 record and an ERA of 11.57. The Orioles released him in February of 2016.

Joe Maddon was managing the Chicago Cubs, and may have remembered good reports about Riefenhauser when he was in the Rays system. The Cubs claimed him off waivers and sent him to Triple-A Des Moines, where  he went 2-1 with a 4.55 ERA and one save. On August 10 the team placed him on the disabled list because he hurt his shoulder. Riefenhauser didn’t see a future with the Cubs and asked for his release. When he came off the disabled list on August 22, the Cubs obliged.

During the offseason Riefenhauser had shoulder surgery and rehabbed to get in shape to try one more time to pitch in the majors. The Houston Astros signed him to a minor-league contract in December and invited him to spring training in 2017 but released him on March 26. They had other prospects with more promise, and even though he pitched well in spring training, Riefenhauser knew the team made a business decision.

Knowing that this would probably be his last year to pitch, he returned to the New York area and joined the Rockland Boulders of the independent Frontier League, Can-Am Division. Rockland County, New York, is southwest of where Riefenhauser grew up in Putnam County. He finished with a record of 5-1 and an ERA of 3.81 in 54⅓ innings pitched. He did not draw interest from any major-league teams. He did get a taste of coaching, acting as pitching coach for the Boulders when the pitching coach left the team in the middle of the season.

Riefenhauser’s pitching shoulder was too damaged to allow him to keep pitching on a major-league level. He was only 27 years old and needed to find a new career. He decided to finish his education and stay in baseball. He attended Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York, a small town on the Hudson River in Westchester County, finished his physical education degree, and helped coach the baseball team for two years. In 2018 Riefenhauser moved to Manhattanville College in Harrisonville, New York, to earn his master’s degree in physical education.

Riefenhauser said his time coaching the Mercy College team made him “fall in love with coaching.”10 About the time the former pitcher started looking, Sean Kennedy, the baseball coach at Yorktown High School in Yorktown Heights, New York, was retiring after 25 years. Yorktown Heights, in Westchester County, was not very far from his hometown of Mahopac, and as he told a reporter for a local news site, “with Yorktown, it was actually right time, right place. I am done pitching. It was a great run. There are no regrets, ever, in my life.” His goal was “to coach Yorktown as long as I can.”12

In the twentieth century, it was common for major leaguers to spend their offseasons and retirement in their hometowns. That’s not as common these days, but Riefenhauser married a woman who went to high school with him, and enjoyed living near friends and both of their extended families in his hometown. As of 2023, Riefenhauser was still teaching physical education and coaching baseball for the Yorktown Huskers. He also owned an indoor sports training facility in Mahopac. He has good memories of his career in professional baseball. He said, “It’s cool to be undefeated in the major leagues.”13

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted a number of other sources, including Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

Photo credit: C.J. Riefenhauser, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Notes

1 Milo Kaminsky, “Interview With C.J. Riefenhauser,” newyorknine.org, August 8, 2014. http://newyorknine.org/interview-with-cj-riefenhauser/. Accessed March 10, 2023.

2 Author interview with C.J. Riefenhauser, January 27, 2023, hereafter referred to as Riefenhauser interview.

3 Riefenhauser interview.

4 Kaminsky.

5 Riefenhauser interview.

6 Marc Topkin, “Futures Pitcher Appreciates His Present,” tampabaytimes.com, July 13, 2013.  https://www.tampabay.com/sports/baseball/rays/futures-pitcher-appreciates-his-present/2131405/. Accessed March 10, 2023.

7 Topkin.

8 Topkin.

9 Kaminsky.

10 Associated Press, “Chris Sale First Since ’01 to Fan 12 in 4 Straight, but White Sox Fall to Rays,” ESPN.com, June 14, 2015. https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/350614130. Accessed March 10, 2023.

11 Riefenhauser interview.

12 Brian Marschauser, “Former MLB Player, C.J. Riefenhauser, Tabbed as Yorktown Coach,” tapinto.net, July 30, 2019. https://www.tapinto.net/articles/former-mlb-player-c-j-riefenhauser-tabbed-as-yorktown-s-head-coach. Accessed March 10, 2023.

13 Riefenhauser interview.