AA Kansas City Monarchs

Monarchs Sign Donatella

June 15, 2022 - American Association (AA)
Kansas City Monarchs News Release


Kansas City, Kan. - The Monarchs bring back a key piece of their 2021 Championship season with the signing RHP Justin Donatella. The right-hander was a huge piece of Kansas City's success a season ago after joining the roster midway through the season in 2021. Donatella appeared in 16 total games for the American Association Champions and posted a 5-1 record in the regular season, 1-0 in the playoffs. The 6'6" righty finished the year with 52 strikeouts in 51.2 innings, and had a 3.31 ERA. The highlight of the year for Donatella came on August 19th, 2021 where he hurled a complete-game shutout against division rival, the Sioux City Explorers. The shutout entailed no runs, nine strikeouts and just one walk. The complete-game shutout earned Dontatella the American Association Pitcher of the Week award.

Before Kansas City, Donatella had last pitched with Triple-A Reno in the Arizona Diamondbacks' organization where he posted a 8.80 ERA in 15 â..." innings. Donatella, 26, was a 15th round pick of the Diamondbacks back in 2015 out of the University of California, San Diego.

Donatella spent six seasons in Arizona's organization - fluctuating between Rookie ball and Triple-A. His best season came in 2016 when the righty split time in A-ball and High-A. Over 27 starts, Donatella posted a career-high in wins (13), innings (145), and strikeouts (111).

In 2018, at the age of 23, Donatella turned in another solid season at Double-A Jackson in the Southern League. He made 24 starts and produced a 3.46 ERA in 130 innings.

While at UC San Diego, Donatella won 18 games and showcased a sub-3 ERA in his final two seasons with the Tritons. In the year he was drafted, the right-hander was 9-3 with a 1.74 ERA and 0.875 WHIP.

Kansas City is in Sioux City set to play game two of a three-game series with the Explores Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. The game can be heard on the Monarchs Broadcast Network with the pre-game beginning at 6:35 p.m. and the video stream airing on aabaseball.tv.

Tickets to all Monarchs games can be purchased by calling 913-328-5618 or by visiting monarchsbaseball.com.




American Association Stories from June 15, 2022


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central