The Pittsburgh Pirates re-signed veteran minor league infielder Drew Maggi to a minor league deal. He was acquired late in the 2022 season from the Philadelphia Phillies, and spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Indianapolis.
Maggi was originally a 2010 draft pick of the Pirates, who they released during Spring Training of 2015. He has bounced around the minors since then, even getting a call-up to the Minnesota Twins in 2021, though they sent him down without getting him into his first big league game.
Maggi hit .212/.324/.274 in 94 Triple-A games last year. The 33-year-old stole 22 bases. He failed to hit a homer last season, after collecting a career high 16 homers in 2021. He has played every position except catcher and center field during his career, with plenty of time at shortstop, second base and third base.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
O’s just claimed Lewin Diaz for the second time. It’s like something from The Onion.
And Hoy Park got outrighted.
I met drew while he was with the twins and have followed him since then. The twins are idiots for not giving this guy a shot. I saw him hit 4 hr in 4 straight games. Hell..I am a fan of any team that has this kid on it. He will make everyone around him better…
They gotta get this kid an appearance in the bigs! He’s certainly earned it! Wanted them to do it late last year!
Wasn’t sure why last year, more confused with the re-signing now…
Guessing just to have a vet that they can put in anywhere on the field and he can play defense. Insurance policy for injuries or promotions and can fill in until a fresh body arrives from AA
Funny, according to milb.com he signed way back on December 20. The Pirates obviously were very excited to let people know about this.
The team didn’t announce it. The delay is from MiLB adding players late. Not something new for them. Inmer Lobo, the Hoy Park trade return, says he was signed June 1st. He was signed January 15th
The team didn’t announce it.
So they were REALLY excited . . . .
They probably wanted to avoid questions, and were hoping no one would even notice, until the 2023 Indianapolis season was under way.
Storybook ending would be he finally gets an AB in the majors and then retires to become a coach in the system.
Gotta be able t hit better than JVM?
Don’t count on it. JVM has probably been a better hitter in the Minors than Maggi. Maggi never had a chance to show what he could do in the Majors. Of course, it is highly unlikely we would get to see him. He will probably spend the year in Indy, just like last year.
I was being facetious. Sorry.