The annals of baseball history abound with stories of vaunted prospects who never fulfilled their potential. Whether due to injury, work ethic, or simply misplaced projections, these figures serve as cautionary tales to temper our expectations whenever the next “sure thing” breaks onto the scene.
A story far less often told is of the player who had to hear over 150 other players names’ called before hearing his own, and yet who somehow manages to get a shot in the big leagues — and, against all odds,
carves out a successful career for himself. This is the story of Mike Pagliarulo.
Michael Timothy Pagliarulo
Born: March 15, 1960 (Medford, MA)
Yankees Tenure: 1984-89
The man they called “Pags” grew up just outside Boston as a fan of his hometown Red Sox. Snatched up by the Yankees in the sixth round of the 1981 MLB Draft out of the University of Miami, he was considered a solid defender at third who was unlikely develop into a true prospect due to a lack of ability at the plate. His early returns in the minors were encouraging, if not spectacular. Still, he rose steadily through the ranks, making it to Triple-A in 1984.
Despite slashing a meager .212/.293/.404 in 169 plate appearances through early July, the Yankees called the 24-year-old up to try to fill the hole left when they traded captain Graig Nettles to the Padres before the season. Given his pedigree, he could have been expected to serve as a brief stopgap between that five-time All-Star and the next Yankees mainstay at the hot corner. Pagliarulo fared reasonably well under the circumstances, posting a .735 OPS along with 25 extra-base hits in 219 plate appearances. With little internal competition, this performance was enough to give him the inside track on a starting job heading into the 1985 season.
It was at this key inflection point that Pagliarulo decided to roll up his sleeves. Working with hitting coach Lou Piniella, he retooled his swing and developed the power stroke that would elevate his game. “Mike has worked very hard, and I mean very, very hard,” Piniella said at the time. “The big thing has been the time and effort he has devoted to improving. When he came up last year, his swing was basically wrong. Now he’s improved tremendously.”
Initially, the lefty’s success came only against right-handers — manager Billy Martin went so far as to order him to bat from the right side of the plate against a tough lefty in 1985. But, as the years went on, he developed from a platoon player to a true starter, appearing in 149 games in 1986 and 150 in ‘87. His 60 homers across those two seasons ranked third among all third basemen in the game, behind only inner-circle Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and two-time Twins All-Star Gary Gaetti.
Throughout this period, the player who had worked his way up the ladder rung by rung became known for his hard-nosed approach to the game. “He comes out for extra hitting and he’s done with that and he wants extra hitting on top of the extra hitting,” said coach Roy White. “He says, ‘This feels good; I want to keep working on it,’ and he goes down to the cage. After a while, I try to stop him. There’s such a thing as overdoing it.”
Pagliarulo seemed to disagree.
“Some day, when I can’t play anymore, I can say I played as hard as I could play. I have no excuses. I’ve done the best I can do. I’ve worked as hard as I could work. In the past, I wasn’t polished. I figured the more I worked, the better I’d get. I figure now the guy who works the hardest is the guy who’s going to be the best. I want to work harder than anybody and I want to be better than everybody. That’s carried me so far, and it’s going to carry me the rest of my career. I can’t see being satisfied with what you’re doing because I figure once you’re satisfied, that’s it. You’re not going to get any better than that.”
Despite his hard work, by 1988 Pagliarulo’s bat began to trail off. The following season, the Yankees once again shipped their starting third baseman out to San Diego, this time for right-handed pitchers Walt Terrell and Freddie Toliver, neither of whom panned out in pinstripes. Pagliarulo’s time out west was a failure as well. In addition to posting just a .668 OPS in parts of two seasons, he drew the ire of teammates and fans for attacking Mr. Padre himself, Tony Gwynn, as a selfish player. “Donnie (Mattingly) would’ve kicked that guy’s ass the first day,” he told the Daily News in an interview of appallingly poor judgment, which won him no friends in San Diego.
Pags had a resurgence after leaving the Padres, carving out a starting role with the Twins on their 1991 championship team. The veteran showed out in what would be the only playoff action of his career, hitting .308 in 11 games with a pair of homers, one of which was the decisive blow in Game 3 of the ALCS in Toronto, off Mike Timlin.
Pagliarulo stuck around with Minnesota for parts of two more seasons before a brief stint with the Orioles. For the 1994 season, the 34-year-old joined the NPB, helping lead the Seibu Lions to the Japan Series, where they would be defeated by a Yomiuri Giants squad featuring a 20-year-old Hideki Matsui. He returned to the States the following year, appearing in 86 games with the Rangers before hanging up his cleats for good.
Pagliarulo has coached intermittently in the years since his retirement, most notably under his old pal Mattingly as the Marlins’ hitting coach from 2016-18.
For the sixth-rounder with a suspect bat, it’s been a remarkable baseball life. Happy birthday, Pags!
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
