Athletics utility man Carlos Cortes is a switch-thrower.
Wait, come again?
Yep, you read that right. A switch-thrower.
Cortes can throw right-handed and left-handed. He's not a pitcher, so it's not something he does on the mound.
Instead, he developed the ability to throw with either hand when he was 8 to increase his defensive versatility, according to MLB.com. As a natural lefty, Cortes would've been limited to first base and the outfield by standard baseball convention. By adding a righty throw, he could play anywhere.
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He was drafted by the Mets as a second baseman in 2018, but he began playing the outfield full-time by 2020.
At 28 years old, Cortes seemed to be set in his role as a lefty-throwing outfielder.
But on Sunday, he got his chance at history.
He entered in the bottom of the eighth to play right field as a defensive replacement.
Then in the ninth, the A's sent in a pinch-runner for third baseman Gio Urshela, using outfielder Lawrence Butler.
That left Cortes as the only available player on the lineup card to slide into the infield in the bottom of the ninth.
He actually hadn't ever played third base in professional baseball.
“I was going to go to second,” Cortes told MLB.com. “Then they told me to go to third, probably because there was a bunch of lefties coming up. I was cool with it. But I was nervous.”
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He actually doesn't even have a righty's glove in his possession right now, so he borrowed Max Schuermann's leather.
No one hit the ball his way, though.
"We had an ambidextrous player switch hands and go on the infield," A's manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com. "That just says a lot about the willingness to sacrifice for the team and put yourself in an uncomfortable position.”
Cortes is one of two players in the MLB database listed as a switch-thrower, according to MLB.com, but Brewers utility man Anthony Seigler has only played catcher and third base (both righty) in the big leagues.
So this seems to be the first instance of a switch-thrower doing his thing in Major League Baseball. And it's a wonderful sight.
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