Nate Minchey

Tall righty Nate Minchey pitched in parts of four major-league seasons (1993-1994, 1996-1997), though he never appeared in more than six games in a given year. He then built a successful career in Japanese baseball, earning 74 victories from 1998 to 2004. Following his playing days, he spent more than 15 years working as an international scout for the Cleveland Indians and, for more than a decade starting in 2009, the Yomiuri Giants.

He stood 6-foot-8 and is listed at 225 pounds, and self-reported his nickname as “Big ’un.”1 Minchey’s major-league debut was a brilliant one, an 11-1 complete game win for the Boston Red Sox at Cleveland Stadium on September 12, 1993.2 The one run came on his own throwing error involving the first batter he faced in the game.

He was with the Red Sox by way of the Montreal Expos and Atlanta Braves, toiling for seven years in the minors before reaching the top level at age 24.

Nathan Derek Minchey was born in Austin, Texas, on August 31, 1969. His parents were D. C. Minchey, a home builder with his own business, and Lillian (Cope) Minchey, who worked as a secretary. He had a sister, DeeDee, three years younger. Both parents originally came from Michigan, but when D. C. Minchey got laid off while working for Kellogg’s in Battle Creek, they wanted to go someplace different and wound up in central Texas.

Nate grew up in Pflugerville, likewise in Travis Country, a small city northeast and about 17 miles from downtown Austin. His father would play catch with him when no one else was around. In an August 2022 conversation, Minchey recalled that it became obvious early on that he could throw a lot harder than others, so his interest in baseball was something his parents encouraged by going to all his games and so forth.3 In a bi-regional playoff game for Pflugerville, he recalled, “I struck out the first nine batters I faced, and went on to strike out 17 players, but lost the game to a pitcher who only had 4-5 strikeouts against us.”4

He graduated from Pflugerville High School and was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the second round of the June 1987 draft, the 36th overall selection. He was signed by Greg Zunino (father of catcher Mike Zunino, who broke in with the Seattle Mariners in 2013). Before turning pro his greatest thrill was playing for the Tommy Boggs Team in Big League Ball, “where all the players were the best one or two players from all the different schools in Austin area comprising the team, and helping them go to state playoffs that year – 1986.”5

Minchey was assigned to play rookie-level ball for the Gulf Coast Expos in the Gulf Coast League. He started 11 games and relieved in one other, with a record of 3-4 in the short season and a 4.94 ERA. In 54 2/3 innings, he struck out 61, but walked 28. During the offseason, he worked in the Department of Accounting at the University of Texas, but never attended college because he had signed to play professional baseball.6

The 18-year-old Minchey almost tripled his workload (150 1/3 innings) in 1988 with the Class-A Midwest League’s Rockford (Illinois) Expos. He started 27 games (tied for the team lead) and was 11-12 (4.79). He struck out only two more batters (63) but walked 87. He improved marginally in the percentage of base hits allowed and so improved his WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) from 1.646 to 1.563. Rockford won the league’s North Division.

In 15 starts for Rockford in the first half of 1989, Minchey was 3-6 before July 2, when the Expos acquired Zane Smith from the Atlanta Braves. Smith was an experienced left-hander who had won 15 games just two years earlier but was 1-12 (4.76) at the time of the trade. Montreal gave up Minchey, right-hander Sergio Valdez, who had a brief stint in 1986 but was showing some potential in Triple A, and minor-league outfielder Kevin Dean. Minchey liked the move, which he thought provided better opportunity for advancement than in a pitching-rich organization like Montreal’s.7

One newspaper commented on the righty’s competitive spirit, “He was on the mound for Class A Rockford when the trade was made and manager Mike Quade went to take Minchey out, the easiest pitching change he is liable to make considering the kid no longer was Expos property. Minchey left under protest – not at the trade, he just wanted to finish the game.”8

Minchey remained in the Midwest League, pitching for the Burlington (Iowa) Braves. He was 2-6 in 11 starts with a similar 4.57 ERA to the 4.76 he had had with Rockford.

From Single-A to A+ ball was a small move, but Minchey improved in the Carolina League in 1990 with the Durham Bulls. His won-lost record was 4-11, but his earned run average improved to 3.79 and he struck out an even 100 batters in 133 innings, walking 46. There was a point that summer when he was diagnosed with a heart ailment he’d hade since high school – atrial nodal tachycardia – but it was a problem that could be controlled by medication.9

In 1991, he divided his time between two Advanced-A teams – Durham and the Miami Miracle, a co-op team in the Florida State League, managed by Grady Little and Fredi González, respectively. Minchey was 6-6 for Durham, his first non-losing professional record. Perhaps needless to note, minor-league won-lost records are less significant than the development of pitching skills. He had an improved 2.84 ERA and went 5-3 (1.89) for Miami. For the two teams combined, he struck out 138 opponents in 184 innings, walking 60.

In the offseasons, Minchey worked as a substitute teacher. It was work that offered considerable flexibility and he taught “everything from third grade on up to high school.”10

In 1992, he married Gretchen Ihfe, who had attended the University of Texas at Austin and taught sign language to the deaf.

Minchey earned a promotion to Double A in 1992 and pitched for the Southern League’s Greenville (South Carolina) Braves. That year was something of an adventure for the young couple, with Nate on the team bus and Gretchen following behind in the family car, traveling to Huntsville, Chattanooga, and other Southern League cities, staying in cheap hotels.

Minchey had a very good year for Greenville, going 13-6 with a 2.30 ERA and improving his strikeouts to walks ratio even further, 115 to 40. On August 30, the Boston Red Sox swapped veteran reliever Jeff Reardon (whom they had not planned to re-sign even though he was the career saves leader at the time) to acquire Minchey and minor-league outfielder Sean Ross. Red Sox GM Lou Gorman gave a less than glowing appraisal of the newly-acquired hurler: “Minchey is a tall guy, who gives you a lot of motion. His fastball is average, he’s got an average curveball and his control is average. He’s not outstanding, but he’s got a chance.”11

Minchey appeared in only two games for the Pawtucket Red Sox (Triple-A International League), working seven innings without giving up a run. In the right place at the right time, those innings pitched gave him two wins and he was 2-0 (0.00) during his first year in the Red Sox system.

In 1993, he put in a full season with Pawtucket. His 7-14 record was in keeping with the team’s finish, just a half-game out of last place in the East Division. In four of his losses, the PawSox were shut out. He threw back-to-back shutouts himself in early July, and his ERA of 4.02 was somewhat better than the team’s 4.43. His 113 strikeouts ranked second on the staff, as did his WHIP..

When the IL season was over, Minchey headed home to San Antonio, only to get the call to the big leagues as he was pulling into his driveway on September 10.12 The Butch Hobson-managed Red Sox had finished August in fifth place in the seven-team A.L. East. They lost seven of their first 10 games in September but were still only seven games behind league-leading Toronto. Pitcher Paul Quantrill was troubled by a hurt knee and the Sox needed a replacement. Hobson gave Minchey the start on the last day of a seven-game road trip, where on Sunday afternoon, September 12, he made his big-league debut in Cleveland. The opposing pitcher was Jason Grimsley, who escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first without a run being scored.

The first batter Minchey faced was speedy center fielder Kenny Lofton, who reached on a deep infield single. Minchey had him picked off – but his throw to first base “could not be scooped up by Mo Vaughn.”13 It was charged as an error to Minchey. Lofton took second base, then went to third when right fielder Wayne Kirby grounded out, unassisted, to Vaughn at first base. Indians second baseman Carlos Baerga grounded out to Scott Fletcher at second base, 4-3; Lofton scored to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Albert Belle singled, but Jim Thome grounded out.

The Red Sox scored twice in the top of the second on a two-run homer by Minchey’s batterymate Bob Melvin.

Minchey allowed a couple of singles in the second, one in the third, two more in the fourth, then retired the side in order in both the fifth and the sixth. Meanwhile, Boston scored twice in the fourth and ran the score up to 10-1 by adding six more in the sixth. Minchey gave up his only extra-base hit of the game in the seventh, a double by Kirby. He went the distance, allowing 10 base hits but not walking anyone. He struck out five. The final score was 11-1 and Minchey was 1-0.

“It’s something I’ll always remember,” he said of the first complete game a Red Sox rookie had thrown since Kevin Morton on July 5, 1991. “I had no idea how I’d do. I’d thrown a lot of innings at Pawtucket, and I felt a little out of sync and a little uncomfortable after not pitching for so long.” That said, “I was focused, and we got a lot of run support, and I think what helped alleviate some of the butterflies was that I’d faced major league hitting in spring training, and I realized I could do the job.”14

Thirty years later, Minchey reflected on how lucky he was that his debut game was such a success – something he knew was not true for many. He was fortunate as well that he’d been able to perform so successfully in front of many friends and family who were able to attend the game on guest passes. Many had driven down from Michigan.

His second start was at Yankee Stadium on September 18. He allowed just one run in six innings, but the Yankees scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth off Greg Harris and won the game, 4-3. The story had a bizarre twist; Minchey could well have had a win. Boston led, 3-1, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Harris having induced routine grounders to short from the first two batters. As he was throwing what could have been the final pitch, to Mike Stanley, a fan ran on the field. Stanley flied out to left field. Three outs and a win for Minchey? No, third-base umpire Tim Welke said he had called time when he’d seen the fan. The call was visible on video, but Harris hadn’t heard it and Stanley later said his swing wasn’t affected. Given fresh life, Stanley singled, followed by another single, and walk, and a two-run single. Left fielder Mike Greenwell argued that the home team should be penalized for not controlling the fans. The Boston Globe said that 12 fans had run on the field in two games.15 “We were all trying to get the kid back here to thank him,” said the Yankees’ Stanley. “We all think he’ll be on Letterman Monday night.”16

It was the first time Minchey had ever been to New York City. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said after the game. He remembered the outcome resignedly in 2022: “Yeah, I had the game won…”17

On September 23 at Toronto, Minchey was hammered for five runs, three of them on solo homers, but then retired 12 in a row. He lost 5-1 and lost again, at Fenway Park on October 2, following a no-decision on September 28. He was 1-2 and had a 3.55 ERA in his five starts.

Looking ahead to 1994, Hobson said, “He showed me he can throw strikes. I like his makeup and I’m going to give him a long look in the spring.”18 Minchey started the first game in spring training but was pounded in his second outing. It came down to a choice between him and veteran southpaw Joe Hesketh; Hesketh was the one retained. Minchey was with Pawtucket most of the year, getting called up twice to Boston. From June 12 to July 3, he started four of his five appearances and was 1-3.19 He also pitched in the second game of an August 1 doubleheader, beating the Blue Jays, 4-3, allowing just two runs in seven innings. He was returned to Pawtucket on August 4. The last game of the major-league season was on August 10, when the players went out on strike. For the year he was 2-3 in the majors, but with a discouraging ERA of 8.61. He was 11-5 (3.03) at Pawtucket.

On December 7, Minchey and center fielder Jeff McNeely were traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for infielder Luis Alicea. The Cardinals sent Minchey to the Triple-A Louisville Redbirds, where he was 8-7 (3.73) in 1995. In October, he became a free agent. Two months later, he signed with the Red Sox again.

Minchey spent most of 1996 with Pawtucket; he was 7-4 with a 2.96 ERA. He pitched in two midseason games for Boston; both were starts and both were losses. In Texas on June 21, he gave up five runs in the second inning and came out of the game after the bases were loaded with two outs in the third. Boston lost, 14-4. Six days later, the Red Sox hosted Detroit at Fenway Park. He gave up six runs (five earned) in 3 1/3 innings; the Tigers won, 9-6. A Boston Globe headline didn’t bode well: “Minchey awful from start.”20 But there was a reason for his shortcomings. He had lost his velocity owing to stiffness in his pitching elbow. After an MRI, he was placed on the disabled list with a strained right elbow.

In February 1997, Minchey signed as a free agent with the Colorado Rockies. He started the season with Triple-A Colorado Springs, working out of the bullpen, but when restored to the rotation, he won six games in a row to go to 10-2. Called up to Denver, he pitched two innings for the Rockies, both in relief and both at Coors Field – one on July 14 against the Dodgers and one on September 25, likewise against Los Angeles. He gave up two runs in the July game and one in September, for a 13.50 ERA. The Dodgers lost both games, but Minchey did not get the decision in either of them. Most of this year was spent at Colorado Springs, where he finished 15-6 (4.51). He struck out 107 batters, raising his career minor-league total to 1,009.

Then it was off to Japan. For three seasons (1998-2000), Minchey pitched for the Hiroshima Carp.21 He was 15-11 (2.75 ERA) his first year. He had fewer than half as many starts in 1999, and was 2-9 (5.77), but reverted to form in 2000, going 12-10 (3.49).

From 2001-2004, he played for a different Central League team – the Chiba Lotte Marines. In the first three of those years, he started 30 or more games. His records were 12-14, 15-14, and 14-9. His final season as a pitcher was 2004, in which he made 12 starts with Chiba Lotte (4-3). His ERA for the seven seasons in Japanese baseball was 3.64. “My time in Japan was awesome and I would not trade it for anything,” he said in 2011. “Great people and a great place. I think the world saw that in the March tsunami and aftermath. I take great pride in the fact that I was able to make the adjustments to playing in Japan – something a lot of players have tried and failed to do.”22

Minchey wasn’t much as a batter. He never came to the plate in the major leagues. In the minors, he hit .094 in 77 plate appearances with two RBIs. In Japanese baseball he hit .061 in 181 plate appearances, again with two RBIs.

The only fielding statistics readily available are for the major leagues. He handled 12 chances, with the one throwing error in his first game.

In 2005, he started his own home building construction company – NM Construction. He and Gretchen have four children – a daughter, Lauren, and three sons, Jesse, Casey, and Kobe.

The year after that, Minchey began work as an international scout – first for the Cleveland Indians, from 2006-2008, and then for the Yomiuri Giants from 2009 into 2020. He is credited with signing his former Chiba Lotte teammate Masahide Kobayashi for Cleveland in 2007. Kobayashi made 67 plate appearances for Cleveland in 2008-2009 before returning to Japan.23

The Minchey family lived in Japan for seven years. At first, they looked into placing their children in the International School, but the costs were prohibitive, so they enrolled them in a Japanese school. He himself had learned some Japanese and says he used to speak it fairly well, but it is not something he has kept up. The children, though, were “sponges…they really soaked it up.”24 They would even speak to each other in Japanese in the Minchey home. Gretchen Minchey home-schooled them.

While working for Cleveland, he covered Japan, and would go three times a year for two-week stints scouting Japanese players. For the decade-plus he worked for the Yomiuri Giants, the team divided the U.S. into two regions, east and west. Minchey scouted the western U.S., mostly targeting Triple-A and big-league teams hoping to find players who might be good candidates to play in NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball.)

As of late 2022, Jesse, the Mincheys’ first-born, is a software engineer working in Australia on a two-year project. Lauren is married and living in Dallas; earlier in 2022, she gave birth to Nate and Gretchen’s first grandson. Casey is a left-hander, pitching college baseball at Southern Nazarene University and hoping to continue to the next level. Kobe, 19, as the schoolyear begins, is also giving baseball a shot – a freshman pitching at University of Texas and hoping to contribute.25

Had it not been for COVID, there’s every possibility Minchey might still be at it, but when everything shut down, he retired from baseball and the family moved back to Texas. Fortunately, he had the construction company to sustain the family. “It was a blessing to have something to fall back on.”26

Last revised: October 29, 2022

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Malcolm Allen and Rory Costello and fact-checked by Paul Proia.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and SABR.org. Thanks to Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts and Scouting Research Committee, and to Malcolm Allen for a number of suggestions.

Notes

1 William J. Weiss player questionnaire, received January 29, 1988, available via Ancestry.com.

2 It was the last game the Red Sox ever played at Cleveland Stadium.

3 Author interview with Nate Minchey on August 16, 2022.

4 Weiss questionnaire.

5 Weiss questionnaire.

6 Weiss questionnaire.

7 “Expos, Minchey go through upsetting day at Marinelli,” Register-Star (Rockford, Illinois), July 3, 1989: 6.

8 Michael Farber, “Numbers Augur Well for Expos,” Gazette (Montreal), July 5, 1989: G1.

9 Nick Cafardo, “Minchey pitches despite ‘minor’ heart problem,” Boston Globe, October 1,1993: 78.

10 Minchey interview.

11 Sean Horgan, “Reardon gets his final call for Red Sox,” Hartford Courant, August 31, 1992: D1.

12 Chuck Murr, “Minchey’s debut completely successful,” Hartford Courant, September 13, 1993: B1F.

13 Nick Cafardo, “Minchey wastes no time pitching in as Sox roll,” Boston Globe, September 13, 1993: 37.

14 Cafardo, “Minchey wastes no time pitching in as Sox roll,” 39.

15 Nick Cafardo, “Red Sox done in by a double play,” Boston Globe, September 19, 1993: 49, 57. See also Dan Shaughnessy, “Fan took one for the home team,” Boston Globe, September 19, 1993: 49, 59.

16 Jack Curry, “Saved by the fan; Yanks win it in 9th,” New York Times, September 19, 1993: A1.

17 Minchey interview.

18 Joe Giuliotti, “Boston Red Sox,” The Sporting News, January 10, 1994: 36.

19 Tim Naehring was placed on the disabled list, pitcher Todd Frohwirth was sent to Pawtucket, and Hesketh moved to the bullpen. When Naehring was reactivated, Minchey was sent back to Pawtucket.

20 Camille Powell, “Minchey awful from start,” Boston Globe, June 28, 1996: 35.

21 In the latter two seasons, the team were known as the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

22 Bill Burt, “Former Valentine Player: ‘He Plays Favorites,’” Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Massachusetts), November 29, 2011, https://www.eagletribune.com/sports/former-valentine-player-he-plays-favorites/article_66f9d7b9-f5ec-524e-9b64-a1a109859b30.html Accessed September 28, 2022.

23 Baseball America 2008 Prospect Handbook, 134.

24 Minchey interview.

25 Email to author from Nate Minchey on September 25, 2022.

26 Minchey interview.