RHP Cerantola Joins Royals, Reunites with Amsterdam Coach

On Wednesday, 2019 Amsterdam Mohawks right-handed pitcher Eric Cerantola made his Major League debut for the Kansas City Royals pitching against the Cleveland Guardians.

Arriving as a freshman out of Mississippi State, Cerantola only pitched 3 games for the Mohawks in 2019 but made an impressive mark as he went 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA and recorded 22 strikeouts in just 12 innings pitched. The Oakville, Ontario native left the Mohawks early that season to join Team Canada in the Pan American Games.

Back at Mississippi State, Cerantola was part of the 2021 team that won the College World Series in Omaha to claim the National Championship. In 3 years at Mississippi State, Cerantola went 4-2 with a 4.41 ERA and recorded 67 strikeouts in 49 innings.

Following his junior year, the Kansas City Royals selected Cerantola in the fifth round of the 2021 MLB Draft. Now in his sixth season in the Royals organization, the high strikeout numbers continued as he amassed 326 punchouts in 245.2 innings.

This spring, Cerantola represented Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic and made 2 scoreless appearances in the tournament pitching against Columbia and Cuba.

That momentum carried forward as he began the season in Triple-A as the closer for the Omaha Storm Chasers. He was lights out in the closer's role; in 12 games, Cerantola had a 1-0 record with 5 saves, a 1.42 ERA and 18 strikeouts.

On May 6th, Cerantola got the call to join the Major League club and a Kansas City Royals team managed by 1993 Mohawk Matt Quatraro. Eric was also reunited with his Mohawks pitching coach, Mike McFerran, who is now the Royals assistant pitching coach.

McFerran was the Mohawks pitching coach in 2019 and 2020. Since departing Amsterdam, he spent 3 years at Wake Forest, 2 years with the Athletics and is now in his first season with the Royals.

Quatraro wasted no time getting Cerantola's feet wet as he made his debut on the same day he was called up. Hosting the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday, Cerantola entered in the ninth with the Royals trailing 3-1. He issued a walk to Brayan Rocchio to start the inning and then gave up a hit to Austin Hedges to put runners on the corners. Catcher Elias Diaz then helped out Cerantola as he threw out Hedges trying to steal second for the first out of the inning. That first out changed the tone of the inning as Cerantola rebounded and recorded his first career strikeout as he got Petey Halpin to chase a slider for the second out and then got Angel Martinez to strike out on another slider to end the inning.

Cerantola becomes the 22nd former Mohawk to reach the Majors and is one of six currently playing in the big leagues. He also becomes the third PGCBL alum to make his Major League debut during the 2026 season as former Saugerties Stallion, Matt Pushard, debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals and former Geneva Red Wing, Tanner Murray, debuted for the Chicago White Sox.