Josh VanMeter

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Josh Michael VanMeter

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Biographical Information[edit]

Josh VanMeter made his major league debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2019, getting into 95 games, and playing primarily left field, second base and first base. The Reds' outfield was expected to be crowded, but due to various injuries and trades, and due to his hot hitting in the minors at the start of the season, room opened up. [1] He was also used as a pinch-hitter 33 times.

Josh was born in Ossian, IN, a town in northeastern Indiana near the Ohio border. His last name, VanMeter is spelled as a single word. Through 2019, he is the only major leaguer born in Ossian, although quite a few have come from Fort Wayne, IN, which is nearby. Josh attended high school in Ossian, and was chosen in the fifth round of the 2013 Amateur Draft by the San Diego Padres.

VanMeter spent 2013-2016 in the Padres organization, beginning to show moderate power in 2016. He was then traded to the Reds in return for young C Luis Torrens, whom the Reds had picked up at the Padres' behest in the 2016 Rule V Draft, and spent 2017, 2018 and part of 2019 at the AA and AAA levels. Most notably, in 2019 he put up a batting line of .348/.429/.669 in 49 games with the Louisville Bats. Not surprisingly, he was up in the majors for most of 2019.

During spring training of 2020, he had a leg injury which threatened to put him on the injured list when the season started. [2] That was before the Coronavirus pandemic intervened and shut down baseball for almost four months. When play resumed in late July, he was on the Reds' roster, although he failed to hit, going 2 for 34 (.059). On August 31st, he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks along with minor league OF Stuart Fairchild in return for P Archie Bradley. He hit .194 in 12 games for Arizona, to finish at .129 with 2 homers and 6 RBIs. He did better for the D-Backs in 2021, appearing in 112 games and hitting .212 with 6 homers and 36 RBIs, splitting his time between second base and third base.

Near the end of spring training in 2022, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in return for minor leaguer Listher Sosa. He made the team as a back-up second baseman, but on May 7th, he was pressed into action as a catcher, a postion he hadn't played since high school. In the first game of a doubleheader against the hapless Cincinnati Reds, catcher Roberto Pérez had to leave the game with a hamstring injury in the 8th inning. The problem was that, earlier in the game, his back-up, Andrew Knapp had been ejected while sitting on the bench for arguing a check swing call. That left the Pirates without a catcher, so Josh had to strap on the tools of ignorance - and to handle the wicked breaking balls of reliever Wil Crowe. The Reds managed to rally during that time, scoring 7 runs, and ended up with just their 4th win of the season (against 22 losses), 9-2. He described his initial feeling when he realized he would need to play catcher as "pure panic". Before the second game of the twinbill, the Pirates placed Roberto Pérez on the injured list and called up the unrelated Michael Perez from AAA, although since the replacement could not possibly make it to Great American Ballpark in time for the game, Josh had to spend the second game in fear that something would happen to Knapp and that he would be forced to repeat the experience of trying to handle major league pitchers.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Justice delos Santos: "VanMeter pressed into duty as emergency catcher", mlb.com, May 7, 2022. [3]

Related Sites[edit]

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