From the Mound to the Plate and Back
Stetson Allie’s transition back to pitcher has proved worth it for the Dodgers
At amateur levels, it is not surprising to see a player both pitch and play the field.
But at the professional level, one usually sticks it out as a hitter or a pitcher. There have been players to convert from one to the other with success, but they are in the minority.
Stetson Allie, a pitcher for the Oklahoma City Dodgers, is in that minority.
As a senior at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, Allie was getting looked at by scouts as both a hitter and a pitcher.
“It was mixed,” Allie said. “Some teams wanted me as a pitcher, and some wanted me as a hitter. I chose the pitching route. I think it was the best route.”
After being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second round of the 2010 MLB June draft out of high school, Allie started his professional career as a pitcher.
Over his first two years, 2011–12, with the Rookie Ball State College Spikes and Low-A West Virginia Power, he compiled 26.2 innings in 17 games, seven starts, and allowed 19 earned runs.
The problem for Allie was throwing strikes. In those 26.2 innings, he issued 37 walks.
His struggles throwing the ball over the plate prompted the Pirates to make a change: converting Allie to a position player.
Allie, now 27, said that he “was still young enough to make the transition as a hitter. I didn’t have that many years off. It made sense at the time.”
But even with only two years away from hitting, the transition was not easy.
In his first year as a professional hitter and playing mainly third base in 2012 with the GCL Pirates, Allie hit .213 and slugged .340 with only nine extra-base hits.
“It’s way harder to go from pitching to hitting — especially at the professional level. Hitting is probably the hardest thing to do in sports,” Allie said.
But by the time the 2013 season was over, he showed why he garnered attention not only as a pitcher, but a hitter as well.
In 132 combined games with West Virginia and High-A Bradenton, Allie launched 21 home runs and had an OPS of .861.
Over the next three seasons, he continued to hit home runs on a consistent basis with Double-A Altoona, slugging a total of 54 home runs.
But Allie was more than just a power hitter. In 2015, Allie started regularly inthe outfield. It was there he turned his pitching arm into a great outfield arm. That year he went on to lead the Eastern League with 16 outfield assists.
After spending his first six years in pro ball with the Pirates organization, Allie signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers Nov. 11, 2016.
Allie said his signing with the Dodgers was initially to be an outfielder only. But that soon changed.
“I went to Tulsa to start and I wasn’t playing as much. So I talked to [a few coaches] and they said the fastest route would be to pitch,” Allie said. “I was so happy that the Dodges gave me the time to work out as a pitcher.”
That time has not been wasted.
Since his transition back to the mound, Allie has developed a slider that clocks in the mid-80s to go along with a fastball that sits in the upper-90s with the ability to regularly hit 100 MHP.
That combination has pushed Allie quickly through the Dodgers’ minors league system. After appearing in only 10 games between the Arizona League Dodgers and High-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2017, he made his Triple-A debut with OKC at the end of the year.
This year has been more of the same. Since rejoining OKC July 30, he has combined to strikeout 55 batters in only 41.0 innings with Rancho Cucamonga, Double-A Tulsa and OKC, as of Aug. 28.
Although Allie’s career has taken a circuitous route, he thinks it has been for the best.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs, which I honestly think has helped me turn into the pitcher I am today. I struggled early on as a young kid. Now I’m a bit older and it’s been an easier transition,” Allie said.
