OKLAHOMA CITY (July 18, 2020) – Affiliated Minor League Baseball might have been cancelled for 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but some unaffiliated minor leagues are playing and two former Oklahoma Christian pitching standouts are on rosters.
Cale Coshow, who spent seven seasons in the New York Yankees' system before becoming a free agent, has signed with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks of the American Association, while
Jared Price returned for a second season with the Birmingham Bloomfield Beavers of the United Shore Professional Baseball League. The USPBL is based in Rochester, Mich., a suburb of Detroit.
Coshow, a 27-year-old right-hander from Edmond, was chosen in the 13th round of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft out of OC and steadily advanced through the Yankees' system, reaching the Triple-A level in 2018 and staying there in 2019. He was a non-roster invitee to the Yankees' spring-training camp both those season.
He suffered a season-ending arm injury in May 2019 and underwent Tommy John surgery, a procedure in which a healthy tendon is extracted from an arm or a leg (or sometimes donated from a cadaver) and used to replace an arm's torn ligament. He has recovered from the surgery and signed earlier this month with Fargo-Moorhead.
He made his season debut Friday, starting and pitching an inning in the RedHawks' 14-2 win over the Chicago Dogs. Coshow retired all three batters he faced.
"WE. ARE. BACK! 13 1/2 months of sweat, blood, tears and grit to get back to the game I love," Coshow said on Twitter after the game. "Take any doubt you may have and pop it in the mouth. Be a fighter, be an Overcomer!"
Price, a right-hander from Midwest City, was with OC's baseball program from 2014-19, going 9-6 with nine saves during his career with the Eagles. He first signed with the Beavers of the USPBL last June and made 11 appearances (three starts), going 0-2 with a 3.38 ERA, 24 strikeouts and 14 walks in 29 1/3 innings.
So far this season, he's made three appearances, allowing one hit and no runs in three innings, with three strikeouts and one walk.
"About two weeks after our season was over last year, I got invited back to come play up here again," Price said. "Last year was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Having a childhood dream of playing pro ball come true was amazing and I'll never forget it.
"This year is obviously a whole lot different due to COVID-19, but amidst a worldwide pandemic, to even be able to suit up and still play professional baseball is a blessing in itself, so I am certainly very grateful to be playing with everything going on around the world right now."
