Josh Mazzola

Joshua Michael Mazzola

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 195 lb.
• School Grossmont College, Missouri State University
• High School Santana High School

• Born April 10, 1986 in San Diego, CA USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Infielder Josh Mazzola was undrafted coming out of Missouri State University, but still managed to have a professional career of 12 seasons after signing with the San Francisco Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2008.

His first professional stop was with the AZL Giants in 2008, where he put up a very good line of .324/.394/.547 in 47 games, the caveat being that he was coming out of a college program and competing mainly against players out of high school. In 2009, he was with the Augusta GreenJackets of the South Atlantic League and had another good year, batting .284/.347/.455 in 130 games, with 30 doubles, 16 homers and 96 RBIs. That last figure led the league by a significant margin (fiture major leaguers Tyler Moore and Ryan Lavarnway tied for second with 87 each), and he also finished in the top 10 for hits, doubles, homers, runs and total bases. So it was a bit of a surprise that the Giants had him repeat the level in 2010. He did not do as well his second time, batting .259 in 104 games, with 13 homers and 50 RBIs and also played 3 games in the California League with the San Jose Giants.

Starting in 2011, he played in the independent leagues, not entirely surprising given the Giants obviously did not see him as future big league material. That year, he played the first of four consecutive seasons with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association, hitting .308 with 18 homers in 98 games as Winnipeg won the league championship. In fact, he was very productive all four years, hitting at least 16 homers each season, with between 63 and 74 RBIs, and batting averages of .265 or above. In 2016, he changed teams, playing the bulk of the season with the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, still in the American Association, in addition to 6 games with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League. Altogether, he batted .262 in 106 games, with 21 homers and 80 RBIs. Back with Fargo-Moorhead in 2017, he put his name in the annals of minor league baseball on August 31st, when, playing third base, he started two triple play in a game against the Lincoln Saltdogs. Both times, the play went from him to 2B Brandon Tierney to 1B Trever Adams, in the 1st and 5th innings. To get a sense of how rare an occurence this is, it has only happened once in major league history! That year, his offensive numbers slipped as he batted .239 with 15 homers and 57 RBIs.

In 2018, Josh was back with Winnipeg, and while he hit .233, he slugged 20 homers and drove in 75 runs in 99 games, par with his other years with the Goldeyes. In 2019, he moved to the Atlantic League for a second go, this time with the High Point Rockers, an expansion team. He hit only .182 in 16 games in the higher level circuit and found himself back in the American Association to finish the year, with Lincoln, the team he had victimized with his defensive play two years earlier. He played 52 games and hit .263 with 5 homers and 24 RBIs. It was his last professinal season and it's not clear if he would have returned in 2020, given he was 34 and on the decline, before the COVID-19 pandemic made it a moot point by wiping out the season.

he also played at least a couple of seasons of winter ball with the Aguilas de Mexicali and Charros de Jalisco in the Mexican Pacific League.

Related Sites

• Missouri State bio
• Blog post about Mazzola's long pro career