4/28/2023 0 Comments Phillies shortstopGregorius, inspired by his older brother Johannes Jr., began playing tee-ball and Little League Baseball in the Netherlands, and took up drawing in his free time. The Gregorius family moved from Amsterdam to Curaçao in 1995, to follow Gregorius Sr.'s baseball career. Gregorius' paternal grandfather, Antonio, was also a baseball player, pitching in four games for the Netherlands Antilles at the 1955 Pan American Games. His father, Johannes Gregorius Sr., worked as a carpenter and pitched for the Amsterdam Pirates of the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, the Dutch professional baseball league, while his mother, Sheritsa Stroop, had previously played for the Netherlands women's national softball team. Gregorius was born in Amsterdam on February 18, 1990. At the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he and his teammates received honorary knighthood after defeating Cuba in the gold medal match. In addition to playing in MLB, Gregorius has represented the Dutch national baseball team at the Baseball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic. Gregorius' first two seasons with the Phillies were hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, associated visa issues, and a battle with pseudogout, and he batted a career low. The Yankees chose not to extend his contract at the end of the season, and the Phillies signed Gregorius as a free agent that winter. Despite missing several weeks of the 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Gregorius continued to hit for power upon his return, with a postseason grand slam securing the Yankees' place in the 2019 American League Championship Series. Gregorius improved his batting with the Yankees: in addition to breaking Jeter's single-season home run record in 2017, he put up 20 or more home runs in three consecutive seasons. The Yankees, who were searching for a shortstop to replace the recently-retired Derek Jeter, acquired Gregorius in December 2014, and he spent the next five seasons with the team. After the 2012 season, with Gregorius' path to the majors blocked by starting shortstop Zack Cozart, Cincinnati traded him to Arizona, where he split his playing time with Chris Owings and Cliff Pennington. Gregorius' rise through the Reds' farm system was hindered in 2011, when a chronic kidney malfunction caused him to miss two months of the season, but he made his major league debut in September 2012. MLB scouts began taking notice of Gregorius when he was a teenager, and he chose to sign with the Reds in 2007 after they offered to bring him to the United States. His family moved to Curaçao when Gregorius was five years old, at which point he began playing tee-ball and youth baseball. Gregorius was born in Amsterdam to Johannes Gregorius Sr., a Dutch professional baseball player. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. Mariekson Julius " Didi" Gregorius (born February 18, 1990) is a Dutch professional baseball shortstop who is a free agent.
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