Nick Tropeano


Nicholas Paul Tropeano is an American professional baseball pitcher who plays for the New York Yankees organization. After Tropeano attended Stony Brook University, the Houston Astros drafted him in the fifth round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft. He has played in Major League Baseball for the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Angels.

Amateur career

Tropeano attended West Islip High School in West Islip, New York, where he played baseball as a pitcher and American football as a quarterback. He enrolled at Stony Brook University, where he played college baseball for the Stony Brook Seawolves baseball team in the America East Conference. After his freshman season, Tropeano pitched for the Riverhead Tomcats in the , a collegiate summer baseball league, and was named its Most Valuable Player.
In his sophomore season, Tropeano had an 8–4 win–loss record with a 2.44 earned run average and led the conference with 106 strikeouts en route to being named the America East co-Pitcher of the Year and a finalist for Pitcher of the Year by the College Baseball Hall of Fame. He pitched in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Cotuit Kettleers between his sophomore and junior seasons at Stony Brook. As a junior, Tropeano had a 12–1 win–loss record and a 1.84 ERA en route to a second conference Pitcher of the Year award.

Professional career

Houston Astros

The Houston Astros drafted Tropeano in the fifth round of the 2011 Major League Baseball draft. After signing with the Astros, he pitched that season with the Tri-City ValleyCats of the Class A-Short Season New York–Penn League. In 2012, he pitched for the Lexington Legends of the Class A South Atlantic League, where he was twice named the SAL pitcher of the week, and the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League. Between the two, he was 12-7 with a 3.76 ERA.
He began the 2013 season with the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League. On August 1, Tropeano struck out Midland RockHounds infielder Vinnie Catricala with one pitch.
Tropeano opened the 2014 season with the Oklahoma City RedHawks of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League. Tropeano pitched to a 2.09 ERA by mid-June, but missed a month after he experienced forearm soreness in late June. After pitching to a 9-5 record with a 3.03 ERA and 120 strikeouts in innings, the Astros promoted Tropeano to the major leagues on September 1. His ERA led the PCL. Tropeano made his MLB debut on September 10, recording the win.

Los Angeles Angels

On November 5, 2014, the Astros traded Tropeano and Carlos Perez to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Hank Conger. Tropeano pitched in 8 games for the Angels, starting 7 of them and drew an ERA of 3.82 in 37 innings. In 2016, after a rash of injuries to their rotation, Tropeano got called up and in 10 starts went 3-2 and at the time, had the best ERA of the rotation with a 3.25 ERA before being placed on the disabled list. Despite his success, he was activated and sent down to AAA after the Angels called up Tim Lincecum.
In August 2016, it was revealed that Tropeano underwent Tommy John surgery, ending his 2016 season and all of 2017 as well.
After missing a full season, Tropeano entered the 2018 season competing for a spot in the rotation. He was sent down to AAA to begin the season but after injuries to the Angels rotation, he was called up and made 4 starts before going on the disabled list with elbow inflammation. He was shut down for the season on September 11 after feeling discomfort in his right shoulder. He ended the 2018 season with the Angels making 14 starts, collecting a record of 5-6 and an ERA of 4.41 and 64 strikeouts in 76 innings. Tropeano elected free agency following the 2019 season.

New York Yankees

On February 3, 2020, Tropeano signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees that included an invitation to Spring Training.