VMI alum Zak Kent made his fourth appearance in relief for the Washington Nationals on Thursday, giving up two runs on two hits, striking out two, in 2.2 innings of mop-up duty in a 15-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
I remember Kent because I was the TV color guy for VMI Baseball from 2016-2022, which encompassed Kent’s career on the post – he was 12-14 with a 5.74 ERA in three seasons at VMI, between 2017-2019.
The numbers are deceiving – VMI plays its home games in the cozy Gray-Minor Stadium, where the left-field foul pole is 325 feet from home plate, the power allies are 365 feet in left and 375 feet in right, and dead center is 390 feet.
The foul pole in right is a decent 335 feet.
Balls fly out of Gray-Minor; a common refrain from me and the long-time SID at VMI, Wade Branner, the play-by-play man on our ESPN+ broadcasts, was, no lead is safe at Gray-Minor.
Kent, as a junior in 2019, struck out 132 in 97.0 innings – 12.2 Ks/9.
That’s what got him drafted, an obviously live arm, four-seam fastball and sinker in the low 90s.
Kent was a ninth-round pick by the Texas Rangers in the 2019 MLB Draft, and signed for a modest $140,000 bonus.
In seven MiLB seasons, Kent made 63 starts and had 62 relief appearances, with a 4.27 ERA, 1.32 WHIP and 10.3 Ks/9.
He made his big-league debut with Cleveland in 2025, ultimately making 12 appearances, with a 4.58 ERA, 1.42 WHIP and 8.2 Ks/9 in 17.2 innings.
Kent started the 2026 season with Triple-A St. Paul in the Minnesota Twins farm system, then got into two games with the Twins at the big-league level before he was waived on May 3.
I love seeing Kent in the bigs, mainly because, I didn’t see it back then, when I was doing the games at VMI, Zak Kent getting a shot.
Credit to him for grinding it out.
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Chris Graham
