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| Darin Mastroianni high fives teammate Ben Revere during an August 2012 game against the Boston Red Sox. Getty Images |
Mastroianni, who played two years with the Vermont Mountaineers 10 years ago, has gone on to play for four different organizations over a nine-year professional career that has featured teams located in New Hampshire to Venezuela.
For Mastroianni, who’s played seven games with the Minnesota Twins this year but spent the majority of the season in Triple-A Rochester, it has been tough.
“It isn’t fun and I don’t enjoy it at all,” Mastroianni said of moving around a lot. “It’s just part of the job description.”
Currently with the Twins organization, Mastroianni is finding success with Rochester in his fourth stint with the team. He has a batting average of .269, an on-base percentage of .341 and a slugging percentage of .321 in 43 games, and Mastroianni has also swiped six bases and scored 18 runs. It’s a familiar place for the former Mountaineers standout, who has played in nearly 850 games with 12 teams over his minor league career. He’s spent 136 games in the majors and has gotten used to moving back and forth.
“It’s what you imagine,” Mastroianni said of the difference between the MLB and the lesser divisions. “The big leagues are national and Triple-A isn’t as publicized. If you screw up or do something great in Minnesota, it’s all over ESPN. But if you do it in Rochester, virtually nobody knows about it - good or bad. The pressure isn’t as much, but if you want to get back to the big leagues you have to play great here.”
The path to his current Triple-A location has been a long and winding road that has spanned nine years, two continents and found different MLB clubs. It’s a story that paints a vivid picture of the struggles and success baseball players face in pursuit of reaching the coveted highest level. For Mastroianni, that started with the Mountaineers all the way back in 2004 - the beginning of a two-year summer career.
After playing just five games his freshmen season for Winthrop, Mastroianni arrived in Vermont ready to compete. He finished second on the team in batting average (.299) and runs (23) while drawing a team-high 17 walks. It helped him when he transferred to D-II Southern Indiana, where he slugged his way to a .323 average and returned to Vermont the following summer. He swiped a team-high 20 bases in 21 attempts during his second stint in The Green Mountain State, hitting .212 in 34 games.
Summer collegiate baseball is pivotal for players development, but Mastroianni’s best moments with the Mountaineers were spent with his host family.
“I was fortunate enough to live with two great people in Nancy Andreoletti and Fred Stone,” he said.
Stone passed away a few weeks ago, which was sad news for Mastroianni.
“My time in Vermont was highlighted by those two people, and they were easily the best part of it all for me and that’s what made the experience special,” he said
A 16th-round draft pick by the Toronto Blue Jays, Mastroianni spent a year apiece with Short-Season A affiliate Auburn and Full-Season A affiliate Lansing. In 2009, he split time with Double-A New Hampshire and Advanced-A Dunedin.
He played 13 games in the Arizona Fall League, an off-season league that takes the top six prospects from each team and divides them into six teams. He continued to jump around, spending 2010 in New Hampshire before enjoying a productive winter in Venezuela with Zulia, a baseball team there.
Zulia is a franchise in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and has featured players like Colorado Rockies starter Carlos Gonzalez. Mastroianni enjoyed his time there so much he went back two more times, playing 93 games and hitting .300 over three years with the club.
“It was a highlight of my career,” he said. “I enjoyed living and playing there. They have a great culture and attitude towards baseball. It was some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing baseball.”
Mastroianni returned from his successful winter and climbed to Triple-A before making his Major League debut Aug. 24, 2011. After the Blue Jays finalized a trade that freed up a roster space, Mastroianni was called up to bat ninth and play center field. He finished his debut 0-for-2 with a strikeout, returning to Triple-A after the game.
A year later he was in Minnesota, where he played 77 games at the MLB level. It was the start of a flurry of transactions surrounding the 5-foot-11 outfielder, who played all three outfield positions during the 2012 season with the Twins.
He ended up with the Twins after being claimed off waivers, and things quickly became complicated. In 2013, a stress reaction in his left ankle put him on the 15-day disabled list and he returned to the minors, rehabbing across very levels. When he returned, he was optioned and recalled to Triple-A three times over the next year.
The Blue Jays claimed him off waivers and he eventually elected free agency after bouncing back and forth. The Philadelphia Phillies signed him and put him in Triple-A, then promptly traded him to the Washington Nationals. He eventually elected free agency and was re-signed by the Twins. All in all, it added it up to 20-plus transactions over the past two years.
“Life in the minors is a grind and it isn’t easy,” Mastroianni said. “Nobody could ever know what it’s truly like until you get here. There’s no disillusion from anyone that it’s a walk in the park, nor is it a glamorous ride. Still, it’s fun and it’s an experience not everyone gets. So even through the grind of travel, it was well worth it.”
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