Didi Gregorius, Dutch baseball player
Mariekson Julius "Didi" Gregorius, OON (born February 18, 1990), is a Dutch professional baseball shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Cincinnati Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, and New York Yankees.
Gregorius was born in Amsterdam to Johannes Gregorius, Sr., a Dutch professional baseball player. His family moved to Curaçao when Gregorius was five years old, at which point he began playing tee-ball and youth baseball. MLB scouts began taking notice of Gregorius when he was a teenager, and he chose to sign with the Reds in 2007 after they offered to bring him to the United States. Gregorius' rise through the Reds' farm system was hindered in 2011, when a chronic kidney malfunction caused him to miss two months of the season, but he made his major league debut in September 2012. After the 2012 season, with Gregorius' path to the majors blocked by starting shortstop Zack Cozart, Cincinnati traded him to Arizona, where he split his playing time with Chris Owings and Cliff Pennington.
The Yankees, who were searching for a shortstop to replace the recently-retired Derek Jeter, acquired Gregorius in December 2014, and he spent the next four seasons with the team. Gregorius improved his batting with the Yankees: in addition to breaking Jeter's single-season home run record in 2017, he put up 20 or more home runs in three consecutive seasons. Despite missing several weeks of the 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Gregorius continued to hit for power upon his return, with a postseason grand slam securing the Yankees' place in the 2019 American League Championship Series. The Yankees chose not to extend his contract at the end of the season, and the Phillies signed Gregorius as a free agent that winter. Gregorius' first two seasons with the Phillies were hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, associated visa issues, and a battle with pseudogout, and he batted a career low .209 in 2021.
In addition to playing in MLB, Gregorius has represented the Dutch national baseball team at the Baseball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic. At the 2011 Baseball World Cup, he and his teammates received honorary knighthood after defeating Cuba in the gold medal match.