Baseball's Ryan Wagner Traded to Washington Nationals
7/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
July 13, 2006
HOUSTON - Former University of Houston righthander Ryan Wagner was traded to the Washington Nationals by the Cincinnati Reds in an eight-player trade, Nationals Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden on Thursday afternoon.
Wagner, who was a First-Team All-American reliever with the Cougars in 2003, was sent to the Nationals with outfielder Austin Kearns and shortstop Felipe Lopez in exchange for righthander Gary Majewski, southpaw Bill Bray, infielder Brendan Harris, shortstop Royce Clayton and righthander Daryl Thompson.
A two-year letterwinner at UH in 2002-03, Wagner emerged as one of the nation's top closers during the 2003 season. The Yoakum, Texas, native ranked among the national leaders with a UH-record 15 saves and broke a 39-year-old NCAA Division I record with 16.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
In only 79.1 innings of work, he compiled 148 strikeouts, the third-highest mark in UH single-season history. He also added a 6-5 record with a 1.93 ERA to lead the UH staff in the final category. With numbers like that, he earned All-America First-Team honors from Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and the American Baseball Coaches Association. It was the third First-Team All-America honor that the sophomore righthander received during the 2003 postseason. He was named to similar teams by Collegiate Baseball magazine and the American Baseball Coaches Association.
Following his sophomore season, Wagner became the first Cougar player to be taken in the first round of the annual amateur draft when he was chosen at No. 14 by the Cincinnati Reds
He became the first player in school history to be drafted in the first round in Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft when he was taken with the 14th overall pick by the Cincinnati Reds.
From there, he wasted little time in rising through the ranks, making his Major League debut only 40 days after throwing his last pitch as a collegiate player. Wagner became the first player in UH, Conference USA and Cincinnati Reds history to debut in the big leagues during the season he was drafted.
He became the first player from the 2003 Draft to appear in the big leagues (edging current Nationals closer Chad Cordero for the distinction). In his first Major League season, he compiled a 1.66 ERA in 17 games.
During his Major League career, Wagner is 8-4 with 26 holds and a 4.69 ERA (62 ER/119.0 IP) in 108 games spanning three big league seasons. He was pitching for Indianapolis of the Triple-A International League at the time of the trade.
MLB.com contributed to this report.