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Zac Kristofak is a minor-league pitcher in the Los Angeles Angels farm system. According to MLB Pipeline, he is not listed within their top 30 prospects, but he will debut soon. Prior to Sunday afternoon's game, he is being recalled from the minors.
Zac Kristofak is not on the 40-man roster, so the team will have to DFA someone or move something else around to make room. That suggests that they value his services enough to bring him up despite not having room.
The pitcher was a 14th-round pick by the Angels in the MLB Draft in 2019 and he has been in the minor leagues ever since. Currently, he has a 3.38 ERA in six appearances at AAA.
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He was born in 1997 and stands 5'9" and weighs 189 pounds. He is a right-handed pitcher who hasn't yet played in the major leagues and is predominantly with the Salt Lake Bees.
Zac Kristofak overcoming tragedy to make MLB debut
What is truly interesting about Zac Kristofak has less to do with his talent and more to do with the tragedy he overcame in getting to this point. He has a special tattoo with his mother's initials because she was killed in 2012 by her ex-husband and the Angels' pitcher's father.
She reportedly pleaded with judges to keep Kristofak's father in jail as she feared for her life two months before her death. The children left behind eventually moved in with their neighbors, the Kiebooms.
Carter Kieboom was a former top prospect with the Washington Nationals. Once Kristofak debuts, the two will both have been MLB players. After the tragedy the pitcher endured, that was never a guarantee.
After being drafted, he said via Newser:
"I'm not afraid of who I am. I'll get to write my own story. I think that what I want to do, more than anything in life, is rewrite the Kristofak name," he proclaimed.
The Angels take on the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, April 28, and it could mark the pitcher's first-ever appearance on an MLB mound.
