Didi Gregorius

Gregorius' paternal grandfather, Antonio, was also a baseball player, pitching in four games for the Netherlands Antilles at the 1955 Pan American Games.

Mariekson Julius "Didi" Gregorius (born February 18, 1990) is a Dutch professional baseball shortstop who is a free agent.

He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, and Philadelphia Phillies.

Gregorius was born in Amsterdam to Johannes Gregorius Sr., a Dutch professional baseball player.

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 on February 18, 1990.

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.

The Gregorius family moved from Amsterdam to Curaçao in 1995, to follow Gregorius Sr.'s baseball career.

Gregorius, 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.

In addition to baseball, Gregorius played soccer and basketball throughout his childhood, but he was not as invested in those other sports.

Jim Stoeckel, a scout for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB), became interested in Gregorius after watching him play an under-18 tournament with the Dutch Antilles in 2006.

The Reds signed Gregorius as an international free agent two years later at the behest of Stoeckel, for a signing bonus of $50,000.

The Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres had also expressed interest in Gregorius, but he chose to sign with the Reds because they offered him an opportunity to begin playing professional baseball in the United States rather than in the Venezuelan or Dominican Summer Leagues.

MLB scouts began taking notice of Gregorius when he was a teenager, and he signed with the Reds in 2007 after they offered to bring him to the United States.

He made his professional baseball debut in 2008 with the Gulf Coast Reds, a Rookie League team.

His rookie outing was mostly unremarkable, with a .155 batting average in 109 plate appearances, as well as 10 strikeouts and 12 errors in 134 chances.

In 2009, Gregorius primarily appeared with the Rookie-level Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League, batting .314 in 50 games, but he also played in the Class A-Advanced Florida State League for the Sarasota Reds.

In 22 games with Sarasota, Gregorius batted .254, with eight runs, four doubles, and two RBIs.

The following year, while playing with the Class A Dayton Dragons, the Reds' farm system took notice of Gregorius' powerful infield arm, as well as his speed on the base path: he fell one triple short of the club record with 11, and stole 16 bases, in addition to hitting .273 with five home runs.

On August 31, after Miguel Rojas was promoted to Double-A, Gregorius joined the Class A-Advanced Lynchburg Hillcats to serve as that team's starting shortstop.

He played seven games with Lynchburg, batting .240 with six hits and four runs.

After the regular season, Gregorius played in the Australian Baseball League with the Canberra Cavalry, where he was named as the ABL's Defensive Player of the Year.

Despite batting only .189, he enjoyed his time in Australia, and said that playing against major league veterans helped him when he returned to the United States.

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.

At the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he and his teammates received honorary knighthood after defeating Cuba in the gold medal match.

During a routine test in the spring of 2011, doctors found that Gregorius had elevated blood levels of cholesterol and proteins, as well as hypertension.

He was initially suspected of using performance-enhancing substances, but further tests revealed a kidney malfunction.

Gregorius was ordered not to play baseball and to adopt a vegetarian diet; these lifestyle changes, combined with a medication regimen, allowed him to return to the field after two months of recovery.

When he returned to the field, it was with the Class A-Advanced Bakersfield Blaze, before a midseason promotion to the Double-A Carolina Mudcats.

Between the two teams, Gregorius batted .289 for the season, with seven home runs, 44 RBIs, and 48 runs in 84 games and 363 plate appearances.

That November, Gregorius was one of six players that the Reds added to their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft.

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 entered the 2012 season as a top Double-A prospect with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos.

Through the first 80 games of the season, he batted .282 with one home run, 31 RBIs, 45 runs, and three stolen bases, enough to receive midseason All-Star honors from the Southern League.

The Yankees, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .209 in 2021.

In addition to playing in MLB, Gregorius has represented the Dutch national baseball team at the Baseball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic.