Branden Becker (born September 13, 1996) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

infielder. He was drafted by the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

in the 17th round of the 2015 Major League Baseball Draft. He is currently a minor league coach in the Orioles organization.

Professional career

Branden attended

Cajon High School Cajon High School is located in the University District of San Bernardino, California, and is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District. Academics Cajon High School is part of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IB) incl ...

in San Bernardino,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. He played

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

and was also a

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

as a member of the varsity baseball team for all four of his years at Cajon. In Branden's last seasons, his record was 23-4 overall. Becker signed a letter of intent to attend the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

. The Orioles drafted Becker with the 523rd overall pick in the 17th round of the 2015

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Draft. He signed with the Orioles on June 11, 2015. He was assigned to the

GCL Orioles The Florida Complex League Orioles are a Rookie-level affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, competing in the Florida Complex League of Minor League Baseball. Before 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast League Orioles. The team plays its home ...

, where he would spend the 2015 season and hit .219/.298/.238. He remained with the GCL Orioles in 2016, slashing .226/.260/.258 in 37 games. He would be promoted to the High-A Frederick Keys in 2017 and also played for the Low-A Aberdeen IronBirds that year, posting a .267/.267/.433 batting line. However, Becker missed much of the 2017 season after undergoing left shoulder surgery. He played with the Single-A Delmarva Shorebirds in 2018, slashing .273/.328/.352 with career-highs in home runs (4) and RBI (41). He began the 2019 season with Aberdeen before announcing his retirement on May 17, 2019, at the age of 22.

Coaching career

On November 25, 2019, Becker was announced as the fundamentals coach for the Low-A Aberdeen IronBirds for the 2020 season. However, the minor league season was canceled because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On March 3, 2021, Becker was announced as a hitting coach for the

for the 2021 season.

References

Sportspeople from San Bernardino, California Baseball players from California 1996 births Baseball pitchers Place of birth missing (living people) Living people {{US-baseball-bio-stub