With the Los Angeles Dodgers dealing with several injuries to their starting rotation, Landon Knack was called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City last week to make a start against the Los Angeles Angels.
The right-hander tossed five scoreless innings in his return to the Majors and will now be part of the Dodgers rotation for the foreseeable future while the likes of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw remain on the injured list.
Knack was originally selected by the Dodgers in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft and is in his fourth professional season.
Known as “Snacks” by some of his teammates, he explained the origin of his nickname during a recent appearance on MLB Network’s “Intentional Talk:”
“It definitely used to be a little bit more snacks. That (nickname) came in JUCO. I was a little thicker in JUCO, I always had a bag of that Walmart peanut butter trail mix at the field. So we definitely embraced the Snacks nickname for a while there.”
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Knack revealed that he no longer eats some of his favorite snacks because they are unhealthy, but still has a love for them:
“See, I had to stop eating a lot of my favorite snacks just because they weren’t good snacks. I’m a huge candy guy, I got a huge sweet tooth. Sour patch kids are just a guilty pleasure. Oh baby. Yeah, Sour Sour Patch Kids, 100%, Trolli sour gummy worms, powdered donuts. Gummy candy is hard to stay away from. Now it’s mostly smart sweets. Try to try to still get the fix but not go overboard.”
The 26-year-old began his 2024 campaign with Oklahoma City before he was called up by the Dodgers to make his MLB debut against the Washington Nationals on April 17.
In five Major League starts this season, Knack is 1-1 with a 2.10 ERA, 4.44 FIP and 0.94 WHIP over 25.2 innings pitched.
He owns a 3-2 record with a 3.54 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 10 appearances (nine starts) for OKC.
Landon Knack felt ‘comfortable’ without defined role
Prior to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announcing that Knack would stick with the big league club, he did not mind having an undefined role. “Things have been good,” Knack recently said.
“I feel comfortable here now whenever I get to come up and make a make a start. Whenever they need me, I always try to be ready,” he said. “And so yeah, definitely feeling comfortable.”
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