Jason Pridie

Jason Orville Pridie is a professional baseball player from the United States of America who plays as an outfielder. Pridie was a star performer at Prescott High School where he was picked up by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, after graduation, at 43rd overall at the 2002 MLB Amateur Draft. Signing up with the Devil Rays, Pridie’s first assignment was to play for the Princeton Devil Rays where he batted at .368 to earn a promotion to the Hudson Valley Renegades in the A-League.

Pridie had a wonderful season, batting at .344 with a single homer in just 8 games before being named to the Rookie League All-Star team by Baseball America. In 2005, he played for the Visalia Oaks but after just a single game, he was placed on the disabled list for over three minds. He came out of the injury and was placed into the AA-League with the Montgomery Biscuits for the remainder of 2005. In December 2005, the Minnesota Twins came in for Pridie and picked him on a Rule 5 Draft.

Despite being picked, the Twins couldn’t fit Pridie into the roster and sent him back to the Devil Rays in three months. Pridie didn’t do well and was sent to the Montgomery biscuits once again. He batted at a lowly .230 in 132 games but looked to turn things up again in 2007. In the 2007 season, with the Biscuits, Pridie batted at .290 to get a promotion to the AAA-League, playing for the Durham Bulls. The promotion came due to a call-up for Dustan Mohr, to the MLB roster.

Pridie finished the season with the Durham Bulls, hitting at .318 with 10 homers to his name. The Devil Rays purchased Pridie’s contract to prevent him from leaving on a Rule 5 Draft. However, 8 days later they decided to let him go in order to get someone in return of Pridie, in a trade. Pridie was back at Minnesota, playing for the Twins in the AAA-League with the Rochester Red Wings.

In September, Pridie received a call up to the Twins, to make his MLB debut against the Toronto Blue Jays, although just as a pinch runner for Delmon Young. Pridie ended the season with the Twins but was sent down to the Red Wings at the beginning of 2009. He played just one game for the Twins, when called upon as a pinch runner against the Houston Astros.

In February 2010, Pridie was claimed off waivers by the New York Mets where he will be pitted against Chris Carter, Fernando Martinez and Nick Evans, during Spring Training, for the role of the fifth outfielder in the roster.