Great story given his path to the majors.
MLB career not fantastic to date but has developed a new slider apparently and his spring numbers* are impressive to say the least.
13.2 IP 18K 0 BB 1ER 0.44 WHIP.
*yes its only spring numbers but still..
Begs the question, what path to the majors?
Dobnak grew up outside Pittsburgh in South Park Township. Big Pirates fan. Graduated South Park HS in 2013 (his team, ranked 7th in PA that year, lost in the quarterfinals of the state tournament). Attended D2 Alderson Broaddus University in Phillippi WV. After the 2015 season, he pitched for the Front Royal Cardinals of the Valley League, a collegiate summer wooden bat league (not nearly as prestigious as the Cape Cod League) in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
He went undrafted upon completion of his college career in 2017, but was signed by the Utica Unicorns of the four-team United Shore Professional Baseball League (Detroit area). The Unicorns' manager, former big leaguer Jim Essian, knew about Dobnak because Essian's son played at Alderson Broaddus when Dobnak was a freshman and sophomore. Within a couple months, the Twins signed him without ever seeing him in person, just from YouTube videos of Unicorns games.
That signing sent him back to Appalachia, to the Elizabethton (TN) Twins of the Appy League (R). Then called up to the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Kernels of the Single-A Midwest League that same year. He spent all of 2018 in Cedar Rapids.
2019 was meteoric. He began the year with the High A Fort Myers Miracle, moved up to AA Pensacola, then AAA Rochester, and ended the season with the Twins where he went 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA over 28 innings in 9 games (5 starts). Last year he went 6-4 with a 4.05 ERA over 46 innings in 10 starts.
He used to drive for Lyft and Uber to supplement his meager minor league pay. Now he's a millionaire.
Here are a couple of article links:
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/joe-starkey/2019/09/12/randy-dobnak-twins-minnesota-al-central-race-mlb/stories/201909120095
https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/randy-dobnak-probable-great-american-hero/