Two former Major League pitchers — Justus Sheffield and Duane Underwood Jr. — have signed with the Gastonia Ghost Peppers for the upcoming 2025 Atlantic League of Professional Baseball season.
Sheffield spent the 2024 campaign in the Reds organization, pitching for the Triple-A Louisville Bats, while Underwood Jr. climb the bump for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the New York Yankees system last season, going 3-1 with a 3.26 ERA in 32 outings.
Sheffield, 28, pitched for the Yankees and Mariners and combined to go 12-12 with a 5.47 ERA in 48 appearances. The Cleveland Indians picked the Tullahoma, Tennessee, native in the first round of the 2014 MLB Amateur Draft.
Underwood Jr., 30, pitched for the Chicago Cubs from 2018-2020, striking out 43 batters in 36.1 innings of work. Then, the Cubs’ second round selection of the 2012 Amateur MLB draft pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2021-2023. In 2021, his best year, the Atlanta native registered a 4.33 ERA and struck out 65 batters in 43 relief outings.
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Photo: Gastonia Ghost Peppers’ X.
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