Didi Gregorius (33), former major league (MLB) shortstop, is heading to Mexico.
ESPN, an American sports channel,메이저사이트 reported on the 3rd (Korean time) that veteran shortstop Gregorius had signed a contract with Union Laguna Algordoneros in the Mexican League. Gregorius had no team after being released from the Philadelphia Phillies in August of last year. He played in the Puerto Rico Winter League the season after, but his 16-game batting average was only 0.170 (10-for-59). He had a low OPS of 0.429, a combined on-base percentage (0.242) and slugging percentage (0.186). ESPN said the terms of Gregorius’ contract had not been announced.
Born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Gregorius made his MLB debut in 2012 with the Cincinnati Reds. However, he was transferred to the Arizona Diamondbacks when Choo Shin-soo (now SSG Landers) was traded in December 2012. Then, in December 2014, he transferred again to the New York Yankees. With Derek Jeter retiring at the end of 2014, the Yankees picked Gregorius as the best person to fill his void.
In fact, Gregorius played more than 1,000 innings every year as a shortstop for three years from 2015 and played an active role as a key man. In 2017 and 2018, he hit 20 home runs for the second year in a row and was named 20th respectively in the American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) voting. However, after moving to Philadelphia in 2020, he slowly went downhill. He had a batting average of 0.209 in 103 games in 2021, and a batting average of 0.210 in 63 games last year as well. Eventually, he disappeared from the big leagues.
Gregorius’ MLB record for a total of 11 years is a batting average of 0.257 (999 hits in 3893 at-bats), 134 homers, and 530 RBIs. He came close to reaching 1000 hits for his personal career by one point, but it is unclear whether he will reach the mark.