How a seldom-used pitch landed Ukiah, SRJC alum Devin Kirby a professional contract with the Minnesota Twins

Devin Kirby’s life has changed dramatically in the last two-plus weeks.

The Ukiah High School and Santa Rosa Junior College product, who just finished his second and final collegiate season pitching at UConn, capped off a whirlwind weekend by signing with the Minnesota Twins as an undrafted free agent Monday.

It was just last Wednesday when Kirby made his final start for the Healdsburg Prune Packers in front of an area scout for the Twins. Impressed by what they saw — namely, Kirby’s knuckleball, his seldom-used signature pitch — the Twins decided to give him a shot.

“Just the phone call in general with my agent and my pitching coach, then going to the assistant GM, was very surreal,” Kirby told The Press Democrat last Thursday. “It was something I’ve always dreamed of. After the draft and my last year, it was really tough to grasp the idea of going professional still, but I was working, trying to do it.”

Kirby has had a winding road to even reach the first stages of professional baseball.

After a standout three-year prep career at Ukiah, Kirby continued his success at SRJC, where he was named a First-Team All-American along with earning All-Conference, All-State and All-Region honors as a sophomore in 2019. In 28 appearances out of the bullpen that year, Kirby had 17 saves, a 79-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.09 earned run average in 49⅔ innings pitched.

He originally committed to Tulane, but an error in his transcripts forced him to decommit and ultimately choose UConn for his next destination. He didn’t appear in a game for UConn until March 2022 because of the pandemic and a UCL injury that required Tommy John surgery, keeping him out for the entire 2021 season.

In his two seasons at UConn, he went 8-1 in 41 appearances, sporting a 4.04 ERA with 73 strikeouts in 75⅔ innings pitched. He was a key arm out of the bullpen both years — over which time UConn won 94 games, the most in program history in back-to-back seasons.

Kirby went undrafted in 2022 and 2023, which wasn’t a surprise to him, and was talking with his agent about playing independent league baseball next year as a primarily knuckleball pitcher in the hopes of getting noticed by pro teams. In the meantime, he joined the Prune Packers for summer ball while he mulled his options.

About two weeks ago, UConn’s pitching coach said that the Twins were interested in his knuckleball. He quickly sent over video and analytics. They were intrigued by what they saw and sent a scout to watch him in person. That was last Wednesday.

“The knuckleball did what it needed to do to get me signed,” Kirby said.

The pitch has been in his repertoire since high school — he first started throwing it during warmups for practices — but he rarely used it in games in college or high school for several reasons. His coaches say the slow, erratic pitch was so effective that catchers had a hard time catching it.

Plus, he didn’t need it to be successful. Along the way, he also developed a two-seamer, change-up and slider. He touches low-90s with his fastball and he consistently throws his knuckleball in the low- to mid-70s, a bit faster than recent MLB knuckleballers.

“It’s something he seldom threw, but we knew it was a high-level pitch,” said Mickey Coughlin, a pitching coach in Ukiah who has worked with Kirby since he was 14. “With most pitchers, the knuckleball is kind of a joke pitch, but his is the real thing. The difference is he can also pitch with his fastball and slider.”

“It’s a real knuckleball,” Coughlin added. “He threw one the other day that had 63 RPM,” or rotations per minute.

For context, R.A. Dickey, a knuckleballer who won the National League Cy Young Award in 2012, threw his around 150 RPM.

“I don’t know how I developed it,” Kirby said. “I just know that I had the pitch grip, my arm releases it the way it does, I don’t try to do anything special, other than throw it as hard as I can at times. … It was just an experiment, really, an experiment that I developed over time.”

Kirby’s been told he’ll be throwing it a lot more as a pro. The Twins are looking to develop him as a knuckleballer, which has become a bit of a rarity in today’s game. Matt Waldron made a start for the San Diego Padres in late June and threw 13 knuckleballs, becoming the first pitcher in more than two years to throw one in an MLB game.

Kirby told The Press Democrat on Tuesday that he’ll likely start his pro career at the rookie ball level and could potentially see game action as soon as this weekend.

“I had dreamt of this for so long and I finally accomplished my dream of being a professional baseball player,” he said. “I know there’s still a long road to go, but it’s just pretty awesome.”

You can reach Staff Writer Gus Morris at 707-304-9372 or gus.morris@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @JustGusPD.