George Springer

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George Chelston Springer III

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Biographical Information[edit]

George Springer was a first-round draft pick in 2011.

High School[edit]

Springer's father George II played in the 1976 Little League World Series. In high school, Springer was All-New England in 2007 and 2008. The Minnesota Twins took him in the 48th round of the 2008 amateur draft but he did not sign; two other high schoolers they drafted and failed to sign would also be 2011 first-rounders: Kolten Wong and Tyler Anderson.

College[edit]

Springer hit .358/.454/.679 as a University of Connecticut freshman, with 75 runs, 16 home runs and 12 steals in 15 tries. He set the school record for runs and the school freshman record for homers; he also was the first Huskie to be named Big East Conference Rookie of the Year. He was named to the All-Big East outfield, joining A.J. Pollock and Justin Parks. Springer was also named a Freshman All-American outfielder by Baseball America, joining Jackie Bradley Jr. and Wong.

In the 2009 Cape Cod League, he batted .261/.342/.366 for the Wareham Gatemen. Baseball America rated him as the #27 prospect in the league. As a sophomore, he improved to .337/.491/.658 and set school records for walks (60) and runs (84). He stole 33 bases while only being caught twice, went deep 18 times and made only one error. He was All-Big East second team behind Jeremy Baltz, Pat Biserta and Matt Szczur. He was 6th in NCAA Division I in walks, 6th in runs (between Kyle Parker and Anthony Rendon) and tied for 19th in steals. He again played for Wareham, going 15 for 52 with a triple, 3 home runs and 7 steals before being summoned for Team USA. Baseball America rated him as the #2 prospect in the Cape Cod League, between Anthony Ranaudo and UConn teammate Matt Barnes (who joined him on Team USA).

For Team USA in the summer of 2010, Springer batted .292/.342/.472 with a team-high 7 doubles and 18 RBI. He joined Bradley and Mikie Mahtook as the main outfielders. In the semifinals of the 2010 World University Championship, his grand slam off Yuki Saito provided all of the US offense in a 4-2 win. The team wound up with the Silver Medal. For the event, he hit .259/.286/.593 with 7 runs and 7 RBI in six games; he tied for the US lead in RBI and tied Mahtook for second in runs.

As a junior, Springer was even better, winning Big East Player of the Year honors and All-American nods. He put up a line of .343/.450/.608 with 31 steals in 38 tries, a drop-off 12 home runs, 61 runs and 77 RBI in 66 games.

He finished as Connecticut's career leader in both home runs (46) and runs (220).

Pro Career[edit]

The Houston Astros made Springer the 11th pick of the 2011 amateur draft. He was the second outfielder taken, after high schooler Bubba Starling, and was the second position player from a four-year college (following Rendon). He was the highest pick in UConn history, surpassing Charles Nagy (17th overall, in 1988). When Barnes was taken later in the first round, they became the first Big East teammates to both go in the first round since Mo Vaughn and Kevin Morton of Seton Hall University in 1989. When St. John's Joe Panik went later in the first round, it marked the first time three Big East players were taken in that round.

Springer was signed by scout John Kosciak and scouting director Bobby Heck for a reported $2.525 million and made his pro debut with the Tri-City Valley Cats on August 26th. In 8 games with the club, he hit .179 with a home run. he started 2012 with the Lancaster Jethawks of the California League, where he hit .316/.398/.557 in 106 games, in a very favorable hitting environment. He was promoted to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the AA Texas League on August 9th, where he hit .219 in 22 games. In 128 contests between the two teams, he collected 21 doubles, 10 triples and 24 homers, scored 109 runs and drove in 87 and stole 32 bases in 40 tries. Baseball America ranked him the #37 prospect in baseball after the season, up 22 ranks from a year earlier. He continued his progression with another very productive season in 2013. In 73 games at Corpus Christi, he hit .297, and then added 62 games at the AAA level with the Oklahoma City RedHawks, hitting .311. His combined batting line in 135 games was .303/.411/.600, as he slugged 27 doubles, 4 triples and 37 homers. He again topped 100 runs scored, with 106, added 108 RBIs and stole 45 bases. He was named the Texas League Player of the Year in spite of only spending half a season with Round Rock.

Major Leagues[edit]

When Springer showed up in spring training with the Astros in 2014, it was a question of when, not if, he would be starting for the team in the majors. Even with the top draft choices of the previous two amateur drafts, Carlos Correa and Mark Appel, also in camp, he was the biggest center of attraction. The Astros tried to lower expectations by stating from the start that they wanted him to get a bit more experience at AAA, and he was back in Oklahoma City to start the year. He was hitting .319 with 7 extra-base hits in 12 games when the Astros announced on April 15th that he was being called up to the big leagues and that his career would begin the next day, replacing Robbie Grossman on the roster. In his debut against the Kansas City Royals on April 16th, he went 1 for 5 in a 6-4, extra-inning loss. Playing center field and batting second, he collected his first big league hit in the 3rd inning on an infield single against Jeremy Guthrie; he also drew a walk and scored a run. He started off a bit slowly, as he was hitting only .182 with no homers at the end of April, after 14 games, but picked things up in May. Between May 21-26th, he homered in four straight games, including his first two-homer game in a 9-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on May 24th. He also drove in 11 runs in those games, aided by a five-RBI performance in his multi-homer game. He was the first rookie in Astros history to go deep in four consecutive games. In the fourth game, he became the first Astros player to score five runs in a game since Cody Ransom in 2007. He made it 6 homers in 6 games when he connected again two games later, then a homer off Preston Guilmet of the Baltimore Orioles on May 29th made it seven in seven games. He was the first rookie since Rudy York in 1937 to accomplish such a feat, and his 10 homers in May were an Astros rookie record. His power hitting was definitely helping the team, too, as the Astros were on a six-game winning streak and were threatening to have their first month of .500 ball since 2010. He was named the American League's Rookie of the Month for May on the strength of a .294 average, 10 homers 25 RBIs and 22 runs scored. After 78 games, he was hitting .231 with 20 homers and 51 RBIs when he strained his left quadriceps muscle on July 19th. He had to go on the disabled list and did not play again that season.

Springer made the highlight reels with a tremendous catch in right field on April 12, 2015. With two outs and the bases loaded in the 10th inning of a game against the Texas Rangers, Leonys Martin hit a drive that was headed over the wall for a game-winning grand slam when George timed his jump perfectly and grabbed the ball above the padding. The Astros went on to win the game, 8-6, in 14 innings. He was hitting .264 with 13 homers and 29 RBIs in 75 games when he was hit by a pitch by Edinson Volquez of the Kansas City Royals on July 1st, breaking his wrist. He game back in September and was able to pay regularly the last month, ending up at .276 in 102 games, with 16 homers and 41 RBIs. He was 1 for 4 with a double during the Astros' win over the |New York Yankees in the Wild Card Game. In the Division Series against the Royals, he was 4 for 19 (.211), with a double and a homer, 3 RBIs and 5 runs scored. He followed that with a very solid season in 2016, when he played all 162 games, led the American League with 744 plate appearances, and scored 116 runs while hitting .261, he had 29 doubles and as many homer, in addition to 5 triples, drew 88 walks and drove in 88 runs. His only poor mark was in the base stealing department, as he was successful only 9 times while being caught stealing a league-leading 10.

He started the 2017 with a bang as he led off the bottom of the 1st inning with a homer off Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners on opening day, April 3rd. On April 5th, he hit a three-run walk-off homer off Chase De Jong with two outs in the 13th to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 win over those same Mariners. Homering in his first at-bat of the game became a bit of a habit, as he did it twice more in the next six games, something unprecedented. He already had 12 lead-off home runs in his short career. On April 11th, he made it four lead-off homers in eight games as he turned the trick again, this time off Ariel Miranda of the Seattle Mariners, to set the Astros on their way to a 7-5 win. He had another great game on May 31st when he reached base in all six plate appearances against the Minnesota Twins in a 17-5 win. He once again led off the game with a homer, and added a second one later on in the game. He was named to the All-Star team for the first time that year and finished the season at .283 with 34 homers and 85 RBIs while scoring 112 runs in 140 games. He was named the winner of a Silver Slugger Award as one of the three best-hitting outfielders in the American League after the season. His strong hitting carried over in the postseason, as he hit .412 with 3 extra-base hits in the Division Series win over the Boston Red Sox. He slumped in the ALCS, though, hitting just .117 with no exra-base hits in Houston's win over the New York Yankees. He then started the 2017 World Series by wearing the proverbial "Golden Sombrero" in Game 1 against the Los Angeles Dodgers on October 24th, but he was an unstoppable force after that. he collected 11 hits over the next 6 games, including 3 doubles and 5 homers, scored 11 runs and drove in 7 to win the World Series Most Valuable Player Award as Houston triumphed in seven games, winning the first championship in franchise history.

On May 7, 2018, Springer tied an Astros team record by collecting 6 hits in a 16-2 win over the Oakland Athletics. By the 4th inning, he had already hit a double, a three-run homer and a single, but he failed to complete the cycle in his next three at-bats, singling each time instead. Only Hall of Famer Joe Morgan had ever had a six-hit game for Houston, and it had come in a 12-inning game on July 8, 1965, when the team was still known as the Houston Colt .45's. In 140 games that season, he hit .265 with 22 homers and 71 RBIs and also scored 102 runs. He returned to the All-Star Game. He again was outstanding in the postseason, hitting .429 with 3 homers in the Astros' three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series, and .381 with another homer and 5 RBIs in their loss in five games to the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS.

He got off to a great start in 2019. On May 12th, he had a 5-for-5 game with 2 homers, 5 runs and 4 RBIs in a 15-5 win over the Texas Rangers. At that point, he was hitting .321 in 41 games and leading the AL in runs, hits, homers, RBIs, slugging, OPS and OPS+. His season was interrupted on May 25th when he was placed on the injured list as a result of pulling a hamstring while trying to make a sliding catch in foul territory in a game against the Boston Red Sox the previous night. He missed exactly a month of action but returned in time to take part in his third straight All-Star Game where he was voted the starter in right field. He continued to do well after his return as the Astros ran away with their division, hitting just below .300 and reaching the 30-homer plateau for the second time on September 2nd. On September 3rd, however, he suffered another injury, when his head collided with the outfield wall while going after a ball hit by Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers. He was carted off the field and was later diagnosed with a concussion, forcing him to miss a few games. On September 22nd, he had the first three-homer game of his career in a 13-5 win over the Los Angeles Angels that allowed the Astros to clinch the AL West title for the third straight year. He finished the year at .292 in 122 games, with personal bests of 39 homers and 96 RBIs. He was named a recipient of Silver Slugger Award for the third time and finished 7th in the voting for MVP. In Game 1 of the 2019 World Series against the Washington Nationals on October 22nd, he homered off Tanner Rainey in the 7th inning to make it a record 5 straight World Series games with a homer, dating back to his exploits in the 2017 Fall Classic; he had been tied with Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Reggie Jackson, who had both gone deep in four consecutive World Series games. He went 8 for 27 (.296) with 4 doubles and 2 homers in a losing effort in the Fall Classic.

On January 16, 2020, he signed a one-year $21 million deal with Houston for the upcoming season, avoiding arbitration after the two sides had submitted figures. The season was shortened to 60 games by the Coronavirus pandemic and he played in 51 of them, hitting .265 with 14 homers and 32 RBIs, his OPS+ a solid 140, even if slightly lower than his outstanding previous season. In the postseason, he went 1 for 9 against the Minnesota Twins in the Wild Card Series, before exploding to 7 for 18 (.389) with a double and two homers as Houston defeated the Oakland Athletics in the Division Series. He fell back to .233 in their loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS, but kept hitting with power, bashing another two homers and driving in five runs in the seven-game series. He became a free agent after the season and was one of those attracting the most attention in that uncertain off-season. On January 19, 2021, he signed a six-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, who were considered a dark horse in the race for his services, netting him some $150 million. The Blue Jays already had one of the most productive outfields in the majors in 2020, with Lourdes Gurriel in left, Randal Grichuk in center and Teoscar Hernandez in right, but they now had a typical rich persons' problem in finding playing time for all four studs.

His Blue Jays debut was delayed as on March 31st, the eve of Opening Day, he was placed on the injured list with a strained left oblique muscle. He had been inactive since March 21st after first injuring himself during the first week of Grapefruit League games. It was supposed to be a short stay, but it turned into a staging of Waiting for Godot. As he was getting ready for the Jays' home opener, he pulled a leg muscle, setting him back further. He finally made his debut for his new team on April 28th, but was limited to DH'ing. In his third game, on May 1st, he hit two homers in a 6-5 win over the Atlanta Braves, but the next day he pulled up lame while running to first base, was removed from the game as a preventive measure. It was again supposed to be a short-term thing, but after sitting out a couple more games, he was placed back on the injured list. He came back on June 22nd, and this time played in his familiar centerfield position for the first time as a Blue Jay. However, he was moved down in the batting order, as Marcus Semien had been outstanding as the Jays' leadoff hitter in his absence and was going to keep the assignment until Springer could demonstrate that he was over his injuries for good. Springer did find and his stroke in short order and regained his leadoff position, with Semien batting third, after Vlad Jr., and Bo Bichette taking over the clean-up spot. He was outstanding until going down again, this time with a knee sprain, in mid-August and going back on the IL. In all, he played 78 games and was exellent when he was able to take the field, with an OPS+ of 141, a .264 average, 22 homers, 59 runs scored and 50 RBIs.

He was much healthier in 2022, only missing the occasional game during the first half, thus passing his games total from the orevious year by the All-Star Game, to which he was nominated to play as a reserve. He did go on the injured list on August 6th, due to an inflammed elbow that had bothered him on and off for a spell. The Blue Jays now felt confident about giving him some extended rest as they had just acquired Whit Merrifield in a trade a few days earlier, so they finally had someone who could take his place at the top of the line-up without giving up too much production. Springer was hitting .251 in 89 games with 18 homers and 49 RBIs at the time. He returned on August 15th and was red hot, going 9 for 15 in his first four games. That included his first career pinch-hit on August 17th which was also the 1000th hit of his career at a key point of a 6-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles, followed by his first five-hit game as a Blue Jay the next day against the New York Yankees. He finished the year at .267 in 133 games, with 25 homers and 76 RBIs, for an OPS+ of 131. The Blue Jays made it to the postseason, facing the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card Series, but were swept in two games. He went 2 for 7 but in the second game, had to be carted off the field after a collision in center field with SS Bo Bichette as both attempted to catch a weak fly ball by J.P. Crawford in the 8th inning. Not only was Springer injured, but the ball fell to the ground, clearing the bases in a key turning point in the game.

Springer's outfield collision that ended his 2022 season convinced the Blue Jays that that it was time to move him to a less stressful defensive position in order to keep his bat in the line-up more often. They made a couple of aggressive trades leading up to the 2023 season, dealing away LF Lourdes Gurriel and RF Teoscar Hernandez and acquiring Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier, two excellent defensive centerfielders who could theoretically give them superlative outfield defense if all three were in the outfield at the same time, with Springer in right. The question to be answered was whether they had given up too much offensive production in shoring up the defensive side of the ledger. Springer began to answer that on Opening Day, March 30th, when he had a five-hit game in a 10-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the fourth five-hit game of his career. On June 25th, he led off a game against the Oakland Athletics with a homer off Luis Medina. It was the 55th time of his career that he had started a game that way giving him exclusive control of second-place on the all-time list behind only Rickey Henderson. He had caught and passed both Craig Biggio and Alfonso Soriano, who had 53 and 54 such homers respectively, since opening day. He went into a terrible slump at the end of July which resulted in his demotion from the lead-off spot while he was trying to find his swing. He went 35 straight at-bats without a hit before finally connecting for an RBI single on August 2nd. The 35 hitless at-bat tied the franchise record shared by Ed Sprague (in 1994) and current teammate Danny Jansen (in 2022).

Notable Achievements[edit]

Sources[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Ted Berg: "George Springer hit .115 in the ALCS, then had one of the greatest World Series of all time", "For the Win!", USA Today Sports, November 2, 2017. [1]
  • Anthony Castrovince: "Springer swats his way to MVP honors: Astros' leadoff man ties Reggie, Utley for most HRs in one World Series", mlb.com, November 2, 2017. [2]
  • Michael Hoad: "Blue Jays' George Springer moves into 2nd place all time with 55th leadoff home run: Blue Jays outfielder George Springer now has the second-most leadoff home runs in MLB history.", mlb.com, Yahoo! Sports, June 25, 2023. [3]
  • Richard Justice: "Springer masters baseball, speech disorder: Astros star outfielder hopes to help others dealing with similar issues", mlb.com, July 12, 2017. [4]
  • Keegan Matheson: "Springer, Blue Jays have 6-year deal (source)", mlb.com, January 19, 2021. [5]
  • Keegan Matheson: "'All good': A healthy Springer hits camp ready to roam RF", mlb.com, February 14, 2023. [6]
  • Brian McTaggart: "Series MVP Springer entering his prime", December 15, 2017. [7]
  • Joe Posnanski: "Highs, lows of Springer, Bellinger tell Series tale: Astros star shakes off slump, becomes Classic MVP; LA slugger breaks K record", mlb.com, November 2, 2017. [8]

Related Sites[edit]

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