Jarrod Dyson

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Jarrod Martel Dyson

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Biographical Information[edit]

Jarrod Dyson was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the 50th round, 1,475th overall, of the 2006 amateur draft. He began his professional career that year, playing for the AZL Royals and hitting .273 with no home runs and 19 stolen bases in 51 games. He played in 10 games in 2007, all for the Burlington Bees, hitting .270. He spent 2008 with the Wilmington Blue Rocks, hitting .260 with 39 stolen bases in 93 games. Prior to the 2009 season, he was suspended 50 games for testing positive for a performance-enhancing amphetamine. He split that season season between the Bees (17 games) and Northwest Arkansas Naturals (63 games), hitting a combined .276 with 46 stolen bases.

He hit his first professional home run late in the 2010 season with the AAA Omaha Royals, almost 300 games into his playing career. He was then called up by the Royals and made his major league debut on September 7th, drawing a walk and scoring a run against the Minnesota Twins in a pinch-hitting appearance; he then stole a base as a pinch-runner the next day. He had a similar role in 2011, spending most of the season in the minors, with just 26 games with Kansas City, during which he hit .205 but with 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts. He then found a regular spot on the team for the next four seasons, 2012 to 2016, playing between 87 and 120 games each year. He was never a full-time starter, as he never compiled as many as 300 at-bats, but was a key bench player on a team that went to back-to-back World Series, winning the whole shabang in 2015. He was very consistent not just in his playing time, but also in his results, hitting between .250 and .278 each season, with 0-2 homers and 17 to 24 RBIs the last four years (he had just 9 in 2012). He was also an excellent base stealer, getting over 30 during four of those seasons, and 26 the other. He saw limited at-bats in the post-season in 2014, until going 2 for 10 in the World Series, then in the 2015 postseason he had just 4 at-bats but did score a run in the 2015 World Series which Kansas City won over the New York Mets. From 2012 to 2014 he played quite a bit in centerfield, the his final two seasons with the team he filled in at all three spots, even of centerfield remained his most frequent position.

On January 6, 2017, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners in return for P Nathan Karns. In his sole season for the Mariners, he played 111 games as the team's regular centerfielder, hitting .251 with 56 runs, 5 homers and 30 RBIs. He became a free agent after the season and had to wait until February 19th to find a team, as he was seen as a fall-back option by teams who would be unable to sign their primary target. In a slow market, he had to wait until some big names finally found homes to land a spot. This happened when the Arizona Diamondbacks were unable to convince free agent OF J.D. Martinez to return to the team, and as soon as he signed a deal with the Boston Red Sox, offered Jarrod a two-year deal for $7.5 million. Dyson played 67 games for the D-Backs in 2018, hitting just .189 with 2 homers and 12 RBIs. His season was shortened by a groin injury. On April 9, 2019, however, he played the hero in a 5-4 win over the Texas Rangers; batting for John Ryan Murphy, he hit a two-run pinch homer off closer Jose Leclerc in the 9th inning. It was the first walk-off homer of his career. He had 400 at-bats in 130 games that year, the highest totals of his career, and hit .230 with 7 homers and 27 RBIs, while scoring 65 runs and stealing 30 bases as Arizona's regular centerfielder. In 2020, he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but hit just .157 in 21 games before being sent to the Chicago White Sox at the end of August. There, he was strictly a back-up but hit .300 in 11 games and appeared in two games against the Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card Series, going 0-for-1.

After the 2015 World Series, Jarrod's hometown of McComb, MS renamed a street "Dyson Drive" in his honor.

Notable Achievements[edit]

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