Ryan Flaherty

Ryan Flaherty
Flaherty with the Baltimore Orioles
Baltimore Orioles – No. 3
Utility player
Born: (1986-07-27) July 27, 1986 Portland, Maine
Bats: Left Throws: Right
MLB debut
April 7, 2012, for the Baltimore Orioles
MLB statistics (through 2016 season)
Batting average	.216
Home runs	35
Runs batted in	124
Teams
Baltimore Orioles (2012–present)

Ryan Edward Flaherty (born July 27, 1986) is an American professional baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB). Flaherty has also filled in at third base, first base, and shortstop for the Orioles.

High school career

Flaherty graduated from Deering High School in 2005. In 2004, he led Nova Seafood to the American Legion World Series Championship, as well as winning the Telegram League batting title. He was a 2005 American Baseball Coaches Association Preseason All-American, also winning Maine's Mr. Baseball award. He was also named Maine Gatorade High School Player of the Year as a senior at Deering High School. Flaherty lettered in baseball, basketball, captained the football team and was a finalist for the Fitzpatrick Trophy, which is given to Maine's best football player.^[1]

College career

Ranked the 141st-best professional prospect by Baseball America, he chose to attend Vanderbilt University, where he played college baseball for the Commodores in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I.^[1]

As a freshman, Flaherty was named an honorable mention Freshman All-American. In sixty-two games, Flaherty had a .339 batting average with 49 RBI, 19 doubles, two homers and an on-base percentage of .421, leading the team with 22 multi-hit and 15 multi-RBI games.^[1]

As a sophomore, Flaherty had a .381 batting average with 57 RBI, 23 doubles, four homers and an on-base percentage of .438 in 67 games. He was named Second-team All-American selection by Rivals.com and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). He was also selected to the ABCA All-South Region Team as well as Second-Team All-SEC.^[2]

Professional career

Chicago Cubs

The Chicago Cubs selected Flaherty in the first round (41st overall) of the 2008 Major League Baseball Draft. In four seasons in both A and AA, Flaherty played 322 games with a .279 batting average, on-base percentage of .347, slugging percentage of .455, 182 RBI, 38 homers and 79 doubles. He had his two best professional seasons in 2009 and 2010.^[3]

Baltimore Orioles

Flaherty playing with the Orioles in 2015

The Baltimore Orioles selected Flaherty from the Cubs in the Rule 5 Draft on December 8, 2011. He made the Orioles' Opening Day roster. He scored his first run in the Major Leagues on April 14 against the Blue Jays in Toronto.^[4] He hit his first MLB home run as part of three consecutive home runs off Colby Lewis of the Texas Rangers to start the first inning of the first game of a May 10, 2012 doubleheader at Camden Yards. Teammates J. J. Hardy and Nick Markakis followed with home runs.

Flarhety bats left handed and is considered to have good batting power for an infielder. On September 28, 2012, he hit his first career grand slam off Boston Red Sox pitcher Aaron Cook. On October 10, 2012, Flaherty hit a home run in Game 3 of the 2012 American League Division Series, becoming the first native of Maine to hit a home run in the MLB postseason. Flaherty had his first multi-home run game on June 23, 2013 against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Flaherty became the seventh position player to make a pitching appearance in Orioles history in a 12–2 loss to the Houston Astros at Camden Yards on August 20, 2016. He had entered the game as a third baseman in the eighth inning. Throwing 19 pitches in the ninth, he surrendered two earned runs and three hits on a leadoff homer by Jason Castro and consecutive one-out doubles from George Springer and Alex Bregman.^[5][6]

Flaherty is contracted with the Orioles through the 2016 season. His base salary is $1,500,000.^[7] His role with the Orioles is primarily as a utility infielder with occasional service in the outfield. Flaherty finished the 2016 season with a .217 batting average.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)