Jonathan Malo

Jonathan Joseph Malo

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 180 lb.
• School Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, Miami Dade College
• High School Montmorency College

• Born September 29, 1983 in Joliette, QC Canada

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Jonathan Malo is a minor league infielder.

Jonathan played baseball as a youth in Quebec. He won a silver medal with his junior league team (les Ailes du Québec) in the Canadian junior championships in 2000. That year, he was also named to the Canadian U17 All-Star team. He studied at the Baseball Canada training academy from 2000-2002. Also, while playing with Les Associés de Laval from 2001-2003, his batting avg was .405, with 28 HR, 44 stolen bases, one save and an ERA of 2.90.

Malo was picked by the New York Mets in the 40th round of the 2002 amateur draft. He did not sign and they drafted him again in the 48th round of the 2003 amateur draft. Again, he went unsigned. He won All-American honors at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M in 2004, then was signed by the Mets as an undrafted free agent. He spent over a month of 2004 on the restricted list and did not play in a game that year.

In 2005, Malo hit .231/.392/.369 in 46 games as a utility infielder for the Brooklyn Cyclones; he was 2 for 14 for the St. Lucie Mets. During 2006, Jonathan hit .179/.309/.224 for Brooklyn and .239/.333/.366 for St. Lucie.

Malo played for St. Lucie in 2007, sharing second base duties with Emmanuel Garcia, a fellow Canadian. He hit .255/.322/.377. In 2008, he hit .261/.333/.362 and stole 12 bases in 15 tries for the Binghamton Mets in his AA debut. He was used as a utility man, but primarily split time at 2B with Garcia.

In 2009, Malo hit .245/.322/.308 in 73 games for Binghamton and .186/.255/.225 in 36 for the Buffalo Bisons in his first taste of AAA. He joined Team Canada for the 2009 Baseball World Cup. He hit a homer off the Netherlands Antilles' Raymond Martes in a 15-0 first-round win, and continued to hit well as the team's starting shortstop as the Canadians ran up the score in later games against Sweden, the Netherlands Antilles again and Italy. He homered again off the Netherlands' Rob Cordemans, then later scored the tying run in a key 11-5 win that took Canada to the bronze medal game. He had one of only two Canadian hits in a semi-finals loss against Cuba, then drove in Adam Loewen with a triple in the bronze medal game win over Puerto Rico to complete Canada's best-ever performance in a Baseball World Cup.

In 2010, Malo again split his time between AA and AAA. With Binghamton, he hit .215 in 86 games, and with Buffalo was at .238 in 11 games. In 2011, Malo spent some time with the big league Mets during spring training, then was assigned back to Binghamton to start the season. He hit .240 in 67 games, but also spent time in Buffalo, where he was a little-used back-up, getting only 35 at-bats in 27 games and hitting .143. He was again Canada's starting shortstop in the 2011 Baseball World Cup. He drove in 4 runs in a 12-2 first-round win over the Greek national team, then got things going against South Korea, igniting a 4-run 5th inning in a key 4-0 win. He was named the tournament's All-Star shortstop after hitting .382/.447/.441 and being flawless in the field while Canada repeated as bronze medalists, tied with the United States following the cancellation of the bronze medal game.

In the off-seasons, Jonathan spends time coaching for a youth baseball camp in the province of Quebec. He is passionate about music and sports in general, and wanted to study engineering in college.

Further Reading

• Kevin Glew: "Malo can and will play anywhere in WBC", Canadian Baseball Network, March 6, 2013. [1]

Related Sites

• SABR Quebec bio (in French)
• 2002 interview given while playing for his Junior team in Quebec (in French)
• LBEQ junior league stats (French)