Ryan Battaglia

Ryan John Battaglia

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 205 lb.

• Born June 29, 1992 in Brisbane, Queensland Australia

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ryan Battaglia has played in the minors and for the Australian national team.

Battaglia was signed by Cleveland Indians scout Peter Gahan in 2009. He was 0 for 23 for Queensland in the 2009-2010 Claxton Shield. He starred for Australia in the 2010 World Junior Championship. In one game, he went 4 for 4 with two homers and six RBI to beat Taiwan. He hit .320/.370/.720 for the event with 3 homers and 9 RBI in 6 games while playing error-free ball at catcher. He was 8th in the tournament in slugging, tied for 5th in RBI, led in homers (beating out a slew of future big leaguers) and tied Rowan Wick for 7th in total bases (18). He was named the All-Star catcher; joining him on the All-Star team were Francisco Lindor and Michael Lorenzen.

He hit .143/.250/.250 for the Brisbane Bandits in the 2010-2011 Australian Baseball League, backing up Mitch Nilsson and Shayne Watson. He made his US debut in '11, with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (0 for 8, BB) and AZL Indians (0 for 3, BB, 2 R). In the 2011-2012 ABL, he batted .273/.319/.523 for Brisbane, backing up Ayatsugu Yamashita. That summer, he batted .214/.382/.417 for the AZL Indians, now playing more 1B than C. In 2012-2013, he produced at a .238/.326/.475 clip with four homers for the Bandits, backing up Cody Clark at catcher.

In 2013, he played for the Scrappers (.200/.314/.400 in 19 G) and Carolina Mudcats (.226/.339/.321 in 20 G). He hit .206/.347/.474 for Brisbane in the 2013-2014 ABL, as a third-string catcher and backing up David Sutherland at 1B. In '14, he played for Carolina (.112/.231/.202 in 31 G) and the Lake County Captains (0 for 3) to end his time in the Indians chain. In 2014-2015, he batted .197/.274/.273 for Brisbane, adding third base to his list of positions.

The next winter, he split catching with Maxx Tissenbaum and backing up Nilsson at third. He hit .163/.259/.309. He then played in the Czech Extraliga, batting .269/.350/.577 with 15 homers in 175 AB. He tied Martin Mužík and Nilsson for the league lead in homers, tied Daniel Vavruša and Martin Schneider for 4th in RBI and was 10th in slugging for players with 100+ AB. He played for Australia in the 2016 Haarlem Baseball Week.

He struggled with the 2016-2017 Bandits (.143/.176/.306) and rebounded somewhat to .222/.344/.444 in 2017-2018, backing up Adam Weisenburger at catcher. In 2018-2019, he hit .241/.311/.405 and gunned down 44.4% of would-be base-stealers; he now backed up Danny De la Calle. In the 2019 Premier 12, he backed up Allan de San Miguel and Robbie Perkins for the Aussies. He struck out against Hyeon-jong Yang his first at-bat. His other two at-bats, he fanned versus Tanner Houck.

In 2019-2020, he batted .180/.254/.344 as the backup catcher to Jeremy Martinez.