Brandon Drury

Brandon Shane Drury (born August 21, 1992) is an American professional baseball utility player in the Kansas City Royals organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, and Los Angeles Angels. He was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2010 and made his MLB debut with the Diamondbacks in 2015.

Drury attended Grants Pass High School in Grants Pass, Oregon, where he played shortstop for the school's baseball team. He committed to play college baseball at Oregon State University.

The Atlanta Braves selected Drury in the 13th round of the 2010 Major League Baseball draft. He signed and made his professional debut for the Gulf Coast Braves. He finished the year hitting .198/.248/.292 with three home runs over 192 at bats. In 2011, he played for the Danville Braves of the rookie-level Appalachian League. In 63 games, he hit .347/.367/.525 with eight home runs in 265 at-bats. He was named the most valuable player of the Appalachian League along with Eddie Rosario. In 2012, while playing for the Rome Braves of the Single-A South Atlantic League, he hit only .229/.270/.333 with six home runs in 445 at-bats.

On January 24, 2013, the Braves traded Drury, along with Martín Prado, Randall Delgado, Zeke Spruill, and Nick Ahmed to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Justin Upton and Chris Johnson. He played his first season in the Diamondbacks organization with the South Bend Silver Hawks. In 134 games, he hit .302/.362/.500 with 15 home runs. He started the 2014 season for the Visalia Rawhide of the High-A California League, and in August was promoted to the Mobile BayBears of the Double-A Southern League. He had a .299 batting average, 23 home runs and 95 RBI. After the season, Drury was sent to the Arizona Fall League, where he played for the Salt River Rafters.

In 2015, the Diamondbacks invited Drury to spring training and assigned him to Mobile to begin the season. On June 23, he was promoted to the Reno Aces of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. The Diamondbacks called Drury up to the major leagues on September 1, 2015, and he made his debut that day. Drury collected his first major league hit, a single, off Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Gray. Drury hit his first home run on September 22, off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Adam Liberatore.

Due to his strong offensive performance, Drury was mentioned as a possible backup outfielder during spring training in 2016. He became one of the last players to make the Diamondbacks 2016 Opening Day roster. The Diamondbacks occasionally started Drury in the outfield as well as second and third base to keep his bat in the lineup. Drury was optioned to Reno to clear a roster spot for Shelby Miller on June 19, despite hitting .275/.313/.456 up to that point in the season. The Diamondbacks recalled Drury on June 24, a day after outfielder Socrates Brito had fractured a toe on his right foot.

On February 20, 2018, the Diamondbacks traded Drury to the New York Yankees in a three-team trade, where they acquired Steven Souza from the Tampa Bay Rays and Taylor Widener from the Yankees, while the Rays also acquired Nick Solak from the Yankees and Anthony Banda and two players to be named later (Colin Poche and Sam McWilliams) from the Diamondbacks.

On April 6, 2018, Drury left the game due to blurred vision and migraines. The next day, Drury was placed on the 10-day disabled list due to severe migraines. On May 14, he was activated from the disabled list, and optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre.