James Brian Dozier (;born May 15, 1987) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

. The

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The team is named afte ...

selected Dozier in the eighth round of the

2009 Major League Baseball Draft The 2009 Major League Baseball draft was held June 9 to June 11 at the MLB Network Studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. The drafting order is as follows: First-round selections Key Supplemental first-round selections From Baseball Americ ...

. He made his MLB debut in 2012 and he played in MLB for the Twins,

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...

and

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

. Dozier was an

All-Star An all-star team is a group of people all having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and has been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry. Sports "All-star" as a sport ...

in 2015, and won a

Gold Glove Award The Rawlings Gold Glove Award, usually referred to as simply the Gold Glove, is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) players judged to have exhibited superior individual Fielding (baseball), fielding performances. It is awar ...

in 2017.

Amateur career

Dozier played baseball for Itawamba Agricultural High School located in Fulton,

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

, becoming a local star in the town of 4,000. In baseball, he was selected All-State for two years and named "Player of the Year" in north Mississippi. He also received varsity letters in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, golf, and basketball. While playing in high school, he also played for

American Legion Baseball American Legion Baseball is a variety of amateur baseball played by 13-to-19-year-olds in fifty states in the U.S. and Canada. More than 3,500 teams participate each year. The American Legion Department of South Dakota established the program in 1 ...

's Post 49's Tupelo 49ers from 2002–2005.

College career

Dozier attended the

University of Southern Mississippi The University of Southern Mississippi (Southern Miss or USM) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award bac ...

and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

for the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles from 2006 through 2009. He was named a Freshman All-American and selected to the

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

All-Freshman Team. In 224 career games at Southern Miss, Dozier hit .355 with 55 doubles, seven triples, 16 home runs, and 152 runs batted in. He was a member of the Southern Miss team that went to the

College World Series The College World Series (CWS), officially the NCAA Men's College World Series (MCWS), is a baseball tournament held each June in Omaha, Nebraska. It is the culmination of the NCAA Division I baseball tournament—featuring 64 teams in the ...

in 2009. Dozier played for the

Bethesda Big Train The Bethesda Big Train is a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bethesda, Maryland. The team is a member of the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League (CRSCBL), and derives its name from the nickname of National Baseball Hall of Fame and ...

of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League in 2006.

Professional career

Minnesota Twins

The

selected Dozier in the eighth round of the

. He was chosen as the Twins' Minor League Player of the Year in 2011. The Twins invited Dozier to

spring training Spring training, also called spring camp, is the preseason of the Summer Professional Baseball Leagues, such as Major League Baseball (MLB), and it is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spri ...

in 2012. Dozier was called up in May 2012 to replace Justin Morneau. On May 13, Dozier hit his first career Major League

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

, off Ricky Romero of the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Since 1989, the team has p ...

. In 2012, he batted .234/.271/.332 with six home runs in 316 at bats. In 2013, Dozier batted .244/.312/.414. In 2014, Dozier surpassed Hall of Famer Paul Molitor's Twins franchise record of 25 runs scored in the month of April, a record that had stood for 18 years. Dozier was not selected to the 2014 All-Star Game; however, he was selected by American League captain José Bautista to participate in the 2014 Home Run Derby. On August 20, Dozier became the first second baseman in Twins history and 13th in MLB history to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in one season. Additionally, Dozier was the first Twins player since

Torii Hunter Torii Kedar Hunter (; born July 18, 1975) is an American former professional baseball center fielder and right fielder. Hunter currently serves as Special Assistant to Los Angeles Angels general manager Perry Minasian. He played in Major League ...

did so in 2004. At season's end, Dozier scored the second most runs in a season (112) in Minnesota's history since Chuck Knoblauch tallied 117 runs in 1997. On defense, he led American League second basemen in errors (15) and assists (475). Dozier was selected as a roster replacement for José Bautista in the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game after coming in second to Mike Moustakas in the All-Star Final Vote. Entering the game in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter, Dozier cracked a solo home run off the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

' Mark Melancon to become the 16th player to homer in his first All-Star Game at-bat. He finished the season batting .236/.307/.444 with 28 home runs and a career-high 148 strikeouts (ninth in the American League), and leading the majors in pull percentage (60.2%). Dozier was named a finalist for the 2015 American League Second Baseman (2B) Rawlings Gold Glove Award, alongside fellow second basemen Astros Jose Altuve and Tigers Ian Kinsler. On September 12, 2016, Dozier became the first American League second baseman to hit 40 home runs in a season, with a third inning shot against Daniel Norris of the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. One of the AL's eight chart ...

. He finished the season with 42 home runs, and again leading the majors in pull percentage (56.4%). Dozier set a new Twins record with a 16-game hitting streak to start off the 2018 season. In the 10th inning of the July 15 game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Dozier hit the first walk-off grand slam in the history of

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. It is named for Tar ...

. It was the first time in Major League Baseball history that

extra inning Extra innings is the extension of a baseball or softball game in order to Tiebreaker#Baseball, break a tie. Ordinarily, a baseball game consists of nine regulation innings (in softball and high school baseball games there are typically seven inn ...

, walk-off grand slams had been hit on consecutive days, following Xander Bogaerts' 10th inning slam for the Boston Red Sox the day before. It was Dozier's fourth walk-off home run and sixth walk-off hit at Target Field, both records for the ballpark. He also became only the second player (after Eddie Rosario) to have hit multiple grand slams at Target Field. Dozier batted .227/.307/.405 with 16 home runs in 410 at bats in 2018 for the Twins.

Los Angeles Dodgers

On July 31, 2018, Dozier was traded to the

in exchange for Logan Forsythe and minor leaguers Devin Smeltzer and Luke Raley. In 47 games with the Dodgers he hit only .182/.300/.350 with 5 homers and 20 RBIs in 143 at bats, and was relegated to pinch-hitting duties in the playoffs.

Washington Nationals

On January 13, 2019, Dozier signed a one-year, $9 million contract with the

. In 2019, he batted .238/.340/.430 with 20 home runs and 50 RBIs. Defensively, he had a -5 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) rating, the lowest in the National League among second basemen. The Nationals finished the season with a 93–69 record, clinching a wild card spot. They went on to win the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

over the Astros, their first championship in franchise history.

San Diego Padres

On February 23, 2020, Dozier signed a minor league contract with the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

, with an invitation to spring training. Dozier was released by the Padres organization on July 11, 2020.

New York Mets

On July 22, 2020, Dozier signed a minor league deal with the

. On July 30, the Mets selected Dozier's contract to the 40-man roster. He was designated for assignment August 16. On August 23, the Mets officially released Dozier. Dozier announced his retirement from professional baseball on February 18, 2021.

Personal life

Dozier is married to Renee Dozier. They reside in

Hattiesburg, Mississippi Hattiesburg is a city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, located primarily in Forrest County, Mississippi, Forrest County (where it is the county seat and most populous city) and extending west into Lamar County, Mississippi, Lamar County. The ci ...

. Dozier is a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. Dozier has spoken about his faith saying, "I'm a Christian just playing baseball on the side. That's what I stand for...". In November 2013, Dozier went with the mission group ''Amigos for Christ'' to Nicaragua for a week. While on the trip, Dozier helped dig a new clean water system for a small community and helped deliver a cow and a pig to the community for food.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dozier, Brian 1987 births Living people American League All-Stars Baseball players from Mississippi Sportspeople from Tupelo, Mississippi Major League Baseball shortstops Minnesota Twins players Los Angeles Dodgers players Washington Nationals players New York Mets players Southern Miss Golden Eagles baseball players Gold Glove Award winners Elizabethton Twins players Gulf Coast Twins players Beloit Snappers players Fort Myers Miracle players New Britain Rock Cats players Rochester Red Wings players Mesa Solar Sox players Bravos de Margarita players 21st-century American sportsmen American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela