Former UNC star pitcher Kent Emanuel was called up by the Houston Astros on Friday, representing his first time on the major-league roster since being drafted in the third round back in 2013.

Emanuel was the ACC Pitcher of the Year in 2013 while at UNC, and has since gone on to bounce around the Astros’ minor-league system–spending parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level.

In Spring Training this year, Emanuel posted a 1.08 ERA across four appearances–putting him on the radar of Houston manager Dusty Baker.

He made news towards the end of 2020 when he received an 80-game suspension for taking oral turinabol, a performance-enhancing drug.

Emanuel has maintained his innocence since that time, saying he doesn’t know how the substance entered his system. He has even gone as far as teaming with scientists in a lab to research the effects of oral turinabol on athletic performance.

In addition, Emanuel said he will wear the number zero with the Astros to represent the number of days he feels he should have been suspended for.

“I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and put No. 0 (on my jersey) to represent the number of games I deserved to be suspended,” Emanuel said before the Astros game against the Angels on Friday. “I plan on wearing this number until some changes are made to fix the problem. There’s innocent players getting in trouble for stuff  they really can’t control.”

 

Photo via Michael Reaves (Getty Images)

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