Cory Spangenberg

Cory Joseph Spangenberg

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 184 lb.
• Schools Indian River Community College, Virginia Military Institute
• High School Abington Heights High School
• Debut September 1, 2014
• Final Game July 26, 2022
• Born March 19, 1991 in Clarks Summit, PA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Cory Spangenberg was a top-10 first round draft pick in the 2011 amateur draft. His brother Ken Spangenberg has been a college coach.

Spangenberg hit .479 with 28 steals as a high school senior. At Virginia Military Institute, he batted .380 with 24 swipes in 2010 to win Big South Conference Freshman of the Year honors. Transferring to Indian River Community College, he hit .477, 6th in the nation, and was named Florida Junior College Player of the Year. The San Diego Padres took him 10th overall in the 2011 amateur draft, the second college infielder taken after Anthony Rendon. The scout was Willie Bosque, who also scouted San Diego's next pick, Michael Kelly. He then became the first first-rounder to sign a contract that year, coming to terms with the Padres on June 10th and visiting PETCO Park to take batting practice with the team and meet the press later that day. His signing bonus of $1.86 million was similar to that suggested by Major League Baseball for his draft slot. He began his minor league career with the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League. After 25 games, he was living up to hopes, at .384/.535/.545 with 31 walks, 20 runs and 20 RBI in 25 games. He was 10-for-14 in steal attempts.

In only his second major league game with the Padres, on September 2, 2014, he hit a pinch-hit walk-off home run off Brad Ziegler of the Arizona Diamondbacks to give his team a 2-1 win. he played 20 games for the Padres, hitting .290 with 2 homers and 9 RBIs while splitting time between third base, second base and the outfield. He made the Padres' roster in 2015 as a back-up player and on May 14th he had the first two-homer game of his career, connecting twice in an 8-3 win over the Washington Nationals.

After the 2019 season, in which he played just 32 games for the Milwaukee Brewers while spending the bulk of the year with the AAA San Antonio Missions, he moved to Japan in 2020. He played for the Seibu Lions of the Pacific League in both 2020 and 2021, hitting .268 in 111 games, with 26 doubles, 8 triples and 15 homers the first year. However, his production fell significantly the second year, and he ended up spending time on Seibu's ni-gun team in the minor league Eastern League. He hit .232 in 61 games for the top squad, with 7 homers. In 2022, he returned to the U.S. and spent a full season with the Memphis Redbirds of the AAA International League, hitting .236 with 10 homers and 42 RBIs. The parent St. Louis Cardinals called him up for one game, on July 26th, when he played one inning at third base and did not come to bat. He retired after that season.

Sources

• MLB.com
• Scranton Times-Tribune
• VMI bio

Related Sites

• Cory Spangenberg on mlb.com
• BR Minors page