May 1, 2019

By Adam Morissette

Baseball Canada

OTTAWA- Junior National Team alumnus Cal Quantrill (Port Hope, Ont.) will make his Major League Baseball debut tonight (7:20 p.m. E.T.) when he toes the rubber against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park in Atlanta, Ga.

The San Diego Padres are promoting the 24-year-old from triple-A El Paso where he’s pitched to a 3-1 record with a 4.68 ERA and 24 strikeouts over five starts (25.0 innings pitched).

“It's a dream come true,” Quantrill told reporters on Tuesday in Atlanta. “I know, in relative terms, I didn't spend all that long in the minors. But it feels like I've been waiting forever for this, so I'm excited to be here.”

Quantrill is set to become the seventh Canadian-born player to appear in the big leagues in 2019 and the 26th graduate of the Junior National Team program to reach the big leagues since the 1999 MLB Draft. Quantrill’s promotion is the second big league debut for a Canadian-born player in 2019 after Montreal-born Vladimir Guerrero Jr. debuted for the Toronto Blue Jays in April.

The Padres selected Quantrill with the eighth overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft out of Stanford University. Quantrill has pitched in parts of four minor league seasons with the Padres organization and reaching the triple-A level in 2018 where he went 3-1 with a 3.48 ERA over six starts to finish the season.

He represented Canada and pitched in the Future’s Game in 2017 and was a Midseason All-Star in 2017 (California League) and 2018 (Texas League). A three-year member of the Junior National Team (2011-2013), Quantrill helped Canada win a silver medals at the 2011 COPABE 18U Pan Am Championships in Cartagena, Colombia and the 2012 IBAF 18U Baseball World Cup in Seoul, South Korea. He also represented Canada at the 2013 WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Taichung, Taiwan.

Prior to joining the Junior National Team program, Quantrill represented Ontario at the 2011 Baseball Canada Cup in Moncton, N.B. where he recorded the victory in the gold medal game.

Quantrill’s debut is unique in the fact that his father, Paul, spent 14 seasons in the big league with seven different clubs including a six-year stint with the Toronto Blue Jays where he was an American League All-Star in 2001. Paul also appeared in 22 games with the San Diego Padres during the 2005 season, his last in the big leagues.