The Pepperdine alumni ledger in MLB had an interesting Sunday — one Wave on the wrong side of a loss, another who helped deliver it, and a front-office decision that says more about a young player's future than any box score.
John Peck Stays on Detroit's Radar
The Tigers missed the playoffs for the third straight year, but the organization isn't shutting the lights off on everyone. Detroit made a notable announcement this week to keep infielder John Peck — a Pepperdine product who made his big-league debut this season — active beyond the club's final regular-season games. It's a quiet but meaningful signal: when a team keeps a rookie in uniform after the season has gone sideways, they're telling the league something about that player's standing.
Peck went 0-for-2 in Sunday's 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh, nudging his average to .162 — modest numbers, but context matters. Debut seasons for infielders breaking into a rebuilding club are rarely about the stat line. Detroit appears to be giving Peck every opportunity to accrue reps and stay in the organizational conversation heading into 2027.
Billy Cook Picks Up an RBI in Pittsburgh's Win
On the other side of the same game, fellow Pepperdine alum Billy Cook made his mark for the Pirates. The right fielder went 1-for-the-game with a run driven in and a run scored, contributing to a 4-2 Pittsburgh victory. Konnor Griffin's leadoff home run and two-RBI day headlined the box score, but Cook's run production was part of a balanced Pirates offensive effort that handled Detroit's pitching with relative comfort.
Cook is batting .179 on the season — a stretch that will need to improve for him to cement his role — but he's been a consistent presence in the outfield for a Pittsburgh club still finding its footing.
Two Waves, One Game
The Peck-Cook matchup is the kind of footnote that only alumni newsletters care about — and should. Two players from the same Malibu program, developed in the same dugout years apart, lining up on opposite sides of a late-September MLB game. Peck heads into the offseason with the Tigers invested in his development. Cook heads into it with a hit, an RBI, and a win. For a program like Pepperdine, that's a good week's work.
AI-generated summary