Josh Hader is a professional baseball pitcher who currently pitches for MLB’s Milwaukee Brewers. Josh has so many things in common with his Brewers’ teammate and fellow pitcher, Zach Davies. They both began their MLB career with the Baltimore Orioles and are currently pitching for the same team (Milwaukee Brewers). Hader was drafted in the 2012 MLB draft and traded twice before joining the Brewers in 2015 with whom he made his first MLB appearance in 2017.
Prior to that in 2015, Hader represented the U.S in the Pan American Games with the national baseball team, and in 2016, he appeared in the All-Star Futures Game.
Josh Hader’s Bio
He was born in Millersville, Maryland on the 7th of April 1994 as Josh Ronald Hader. He attended Old Mill High School, Millersville, Maryland, where he played with the school’s baseball team and recorded a 10–0 win-loss record as a senior. He also earned a 0.30 ERA and recorded one hundred and twenty-five strikeouts. His batting average was above .400.
After graduating from high school, Josh Hader planned to attend Anne Arundel Community College before the Baltimore Orioles selected him as the 582nd overall selection in the nineteenth round of the 2012 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft. Preferring to go pro, he signed a $40,000 deal with the Orioles and forwent college. He recorded a tremendous improvement in his first few months with the Orioles. His fastball velocity expanded, increasing from 84 to 88 miles per hour (135 to 142 km/h, his record as a high school player) to 94/95 miles per hour (151 to 153 km/h).
He played at the Rookie-level in the Gulf Coast League with Gulf Coast Orioles and with the Aberdeen Ironbirds of the New York–Penn League with whom he recorded fourteen hits, nine walks and pitched 48 innings. In 2013, he was moved to the Delmarva Shorebirds of Class A South Atlantic League. He started the seventeen games he played in the league’s All-Star Games and pitched to a 3–6 record with seventy-nine strikeouts and a 2.65 ERA.
In July of the same year, Hader and outfielder L. J. Hoes was traded to the Houston Astros in exchange for Bud Norris. He would finish that season with the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League. He began the 2014 season pitching for the Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League. That season, he combined with 2 relief pitchers to throw a no-hitter.
After recording a 9–2 record with a league and leading in ERA with 2.70 and 112 strikeouts in innings, he was promoted to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League and would be named the California League Pitcher of the Year at the end of the season. He also played with the Corpus Christi the following season and would remain with the team until July 2015 when he alongside Domingo Santana, Adrian Houser, and Brett Phillips were all traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for Mike Fiers and Carlos Gómez.
The Brewers immediately assigned him to the Biloxi Shuckers of the Class AA Southern League with whom he would end that season recording a 3.03 ERA combined. At the end of the season, the Brewers invited him to their 2016 spring training. During the 2015 season, Josh Hader was also selected to join the national baseball team that represented the nation at the 2015 Pan American Games.
Hader would begin the 2016 season with Biloxi and his first start with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League. In that same season, he played at the All-Star Futures Game and was included in the Brewers’ 40-man roster at the end of the season. He began the 2017 season with the Colorado Springs but was promoted to the major leagues in June and in that same month, he made his first MLB appearance.
He began his 2018 season in the Milwaukee bullpen, and in April he recorded eight strikeouts in an outing that was not up to three innings long and became the first pitcher to ever record such. During a game against the Cincinnati Reds, he recorded a 2.2-inning save, faced nine batters with eight strikeouts and one walk. Josh Hader also recorded 1.21 ERA with eighty-three strikeouts in forty-four innings to be named to the 2018 MLB All-Star Game.
During the 2018 MLB All-Star Game, a series of tweets by Josh Hader containing homophobic, sexist, and racist content surfaced online. Due to the controversy caused by the tweets, the baseballer players ’ friends and family members who attended the game were given blank jerseys to wear. After the game, Hader issued an apology saying he was immature when he made those tweets between mid-2011 to late-2012. He also deleted his account on Twitter.
Salary
Harder is not among the highest-earning pitchers in the MLB at the moment but if he continues at the pace he is currently going, he will definitely make it to that list pretty soon. The pitcher’s salary as of 2018 is $556,500.
His Family
Hader’s family is made up of his parents Patricia and Tom Harder and his girlfriend Maria Macias. His family has been very supportive and there for him. They sometimes attend his games and during the tweet controversy, there were there wearing the blank jerseys.
Josh named his dad as his biggest influencer and role model. According to him, he has always dreamt of being a big-league player and it was his father who pushed him very hard to succeed.
Height, Weight, Body Stats
The pitcher stands at a height of 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and weighs 84 kg (185 lbs). His other body stats are currently under review.
