Michael Blazek

Michael Robert Blazek was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and graduated from Arbor View High School. Although he signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Nevada, he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals after he was drafted in the 35th round of the 2007 MLB Amateur Draft.

Blazek spent seven years toiling in the minors before getting his first shot at the bigs in 2013 with the Cardinals. After just 11 games with the Redbirds, the right-hander was sent to the Brewers as the PTBNL in the John Axford deal. Blazek spent the 2014 season at Triple-A Nashville and then made the big-league team after having a good spring in 2015. Blazek had a career year with highs in games (45), innings (55.2), strikeouts (47), ERA+ (164) and FIP (3.17). He bumped his bWAR up to 1.2 with one hit in four ABs with an RBI double.

In 2016, Blazek was on the injured list twice and also spent time at Triple-A Colorado Springs but still managed to appear in 41 games. His numbers didn’t match the previous year, as he posted an ERA+ of 76 and FIP of 5.71.

Blazek began the 2017 season in Colorado Springs and started 13 of his 26 games, pitching to an ERA of 3.71 while improving his K:BB rate to 2:1. He was called up to Milwaukee in July and pitched well in his first four relief stints, pitching 6.1 scoreless innings. On July 27, Blazek made his only ML start, and it was a disaster. In 2.1 innings against the Washington Nationals, he gave up eight runs and seven hits, including six home runs. He allowed five home runs in the third inning alone, four of them consecutive. The five round-trippers in one inning were a major league record. He was designated for assignment two weeks later and spent the rest of the year in Colorado Springs.

In January 2018, Blazek was signed as a free agent by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He made three stops in the Arizona chain but never made it to Arizona that year.

The following April, Blazek signed with the Lincoln Saltdogs, an independent team, but before the season, he was signed to a free agent contract with the Nationals. He spent most of the season with Triple-A Fresno and was called up to Washington for only four games, in which he posted an ERA+ of 67 and an 8.81 FIP. He elected free agency after the season.

Blazek signed with the South Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League for 2020, but the season was canceled due to the Covid pandemic.