132: The Tragic Tale Of Gil Meche

Everyone knows the tragic tale of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun just to fall down and meet a grisly fate. The Royals have seen a story like that happen in real life with Gil Meche, a pitcher whose stubbornness to get a complete game eventually cost him down the road. But the story of how he got to June 16, 2009, is just as interesting as the man himself. 

Gilbert Albert Meche was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on September 8th, 1978. Meche was a star pitcher at Acadiana High School and eventually found a place in the U.S. Junior Olympic Baseball Team in 1995, where they would win gold at the World Junior Baseball Championship. That same year, Meche would earn most valuable pitcher honors at the National Amateur All-Star Tournament when he was just 16 years old. Unfortunately for him, he would suffer a viral infection, causing him to miss almost all of his senior year season. He would still be named to the All-America Second Team and announce his intention to play college ball at LSU. However, when he was surprisingly drafted 22nd overall by the Seattle Mariners in 1996, he would end up foregoing college and signing professionally. 

After a solid three-year stint in the minors, Meche would make his big league debut on July 6, 1999, just two months before his 21st birthday. Meche would become the second-youngest player to ever debut for the Mariners behind Ken Griffey Jr. He pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up two earned runs on four hits, striking out five. He wouldn’t get a first win until July 19th against the Diamondbacks when he pitched seven innings and only gave up three earned runs. He would finish his first season with a record of 8-4 and an ERA of 4.73 in 15 starts. 

The next year would not be kind to Meche as he lost his first five starts to begin 2000. He would bounce back and even pitch a rain-shortened shutout, tossing just 5 scoreless innings against the Royals. However, his season would be cut short due to having a dead arm, and he was put on the disabled list in July. He would make a few rehab appearances but would not pitch in the majors the rest of the season. 

Meche would pitch for the Mariners until 2006, putting up solid numbers for them as he went 43-36 with a 4.75 ERA. He would become a free agent at the end of the 2006 season, and with a big-time demand for pitching, Meche was going to get paid big time. He received interest from the Cubs and the Blue Jays, but ended up surprising everyone and signed with the Royals for five years and $55 million. The contract would tie the largest in club history, and Meche would wear the number 55 in honor of that contract. Meche would start off his Royals career strongly, amassing a record of 5-6 with a 3.28 ERA before being named an All-Star in 2007. He finished the year with a 9-13 record and posted career bests in ERA (3.67), innings pitched (216), and a league-leading 34 starts. Meche would have another great year the following season, finishing 2008 with a 14-11 record and a 3.98 ERA. But then 2009 would be the year when the wheels started to fall off. Meche would start off the year solidly, though, with a record of 3-5 with an ERA of 3.70, but then came June 16th. 

In a memorable game against the Diamondbacks, Meche pitched a complete game shutout, only giving up four hits and striking out six. At the time, it was seen as Meche’s masterpiece, but there was only one stat that stuck out like a sore thumb: his pitch count. Meche threw 132 pitches, which is too many pitches to throw for a shutout, and it would eventually take a toll on him. Manager Trey Hillman again gave Meche too long a leash in his next two starts as he threw 121 and 114 pitches in back-to-back starts. He would finish 2009 with a record of 6–10 and an ERA of 5.09 while giving up almost 8 earned runs per game over his last nine starts. He would not be the same pitcher after that. 

2010 would be another forgettable year for Meche as he would not be given the Opening Day nod, which went to Zack Greinke, the Cy Young Award winner the year prior. Meche started the year 0-4 with a 6.66 ERA before being placed on the disabled list with right shoulder bursitis, which marked his second stint on the DL for the season. After five rehab appearances, he would return to the Royals as a reliever and put up admirable numbers, pitching 11 innings to an ERA of 2.08. However, it would be the last time Meche would pitch in the majors, as he would make the surprising decision to retire rather than play out the final year of his contract, where he was guaranteed $12 million. Meche believed that he wasn’t the pitcher that he once was and that he was not deserving of the money. 

It’s hard to know what kind of pitcher Meche would've become if he hadn’t thrown so many pitches in 2009. Would he have won a Cy Young? Probably not. But he would've been a staple in the Royals' rotation for years to come, and that is the real tragedy of it all. In the many what-ifs Royals fans have been through, Meche certainly represents one of the most interesting stories in Royals lore.