Clemson baseball: Keyshawn Askew promoted, shines in debut with new team

Former Clemson baseball pitcher Keyshawn Askew has thrived as a minor leaguer in the New York Mets farm system.

This past Thursday Askew was promoted to High A Brooklyn after dominating in Port St. Lucie.

Askew went 4-0 in 13 games, giving up only 5.4 hits per 9 innings, while striking out 64 walking 19 and recording a WHIP of 1.007.

If you’re a Clemson baseball fan the form below looks familiar and the results are starting to show on a professional level.

As a 10th round draft pick, Askew began his professional baseball journey right on the cusp of being a prospect or “organizational depth” type player with even lower odds of making the majors.

Askew, apparently has different ideas and while his promotion may seem like a relatively minor one, his performance has been stellar.

His minor league career has been brief, covering only 60 innings, but Askew is 6-0 with a 1.65 ERA, while allowing only 5.1 hits per 9 innings while striking out 84.

That includes his Friday night debut for Brooklyn, which covered 4.1 innings, 3 hits, 6 strikeouts and 0 walks.

The biggest thing for Askew is he’s not only pitching well, but he’s getting noticed both within and outside of the organization and in a time when it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle if you’re not a top pick can be important for continued advancement.

Askew pitched at Clemson from 2019-2021, throwing 114.2 innings over 33 games and accumulating a 3-3 record and 5.02 ERA.

In other news for Clemson baseball alumni, Steven Duggar was designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers on Thursday and Seth Beer was recalled by the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 1.

Beer started off hot, with a walk-off homerun in the Diamondbacks season opener, but fell into a deep slump in late April and May and was optioned to AAA.

Beer hit .249 with 12 home runs and 49 RBI in 213 at bats in Reno, but since his recall has only managed 2 hits in 15 at bats (.133) with 6 strikeouts.

For the season with the Diamondbacks, Beer is batting .198 with a home run and 9 RBI in 96 at bats.

With the Diamondbacks far out of the playoff race and a little over 50 games to play, it’ll be interesting to see if Beer gets extended playing time and a chance to break out of his slump.