TJ Friedl

TJ Friedl's Biography

Born on August 14, 1995, Terry Lee “TJ” Friedl is an American professional baseball player renowned for his exceptional skills as an outfielder. Friedl currently plays for the Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball (MLB), a dream he realized in 2021.

Raised in Pleasanton, California, Friedl’s athletic career kick-started at Foothill High School, where he played for the school’s baseball and basketball teams. In three seasons as a letterman for the baseball team, Friedl demonstrated his potential as a proficient baseball player, boasting a .308 batting average.

Fuelling his passion for baseball, Friedl enrolled at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he walked on to the Nevada Wolf Pack Baseball team. His performance as a freshman may have been substandard with a .216 batting average across 37 at-bats, but Friedl didn’t let early setbacks define his future in the sport. Despite playing sparingly as a sophomore, he took a redshirt year to preserve his eligibility to play in the future.

Friedl’s perseverance paid off massively in his junior year when he commanded more playing time. Triumphantly, he scored a .401 batting average, an impressive feat that ranked as the 11th-best in college baseball. He finished his junior year with the second-most triples, 17th-best on-base percentage (.494), and 24th-most hits (89). As recognition of his remarkable performance, Friedl was named to the Mountain West Conference’s first team.

Mistakenly assuming that he required three years of college baseball, rather than simply attending college for three years for draft eligibility in MLB, Friedl overlooked such an opportunity. Nonetheless, his talent did not go unnoticed that summer when he played for the St. Cloud Rox of the Northwoods League. His outstanding play earned him a place in the United States national collegiate baseball team and garnered attention from MLB scouts.

Friedl’s career took a turn for the better in July 2016 when he secured a deal with the Cincinnati Reds for a whopping $732,500 signing bonus — the largest ever offered to an undrafted free agent. He marked his professional debut with the Billings Mustangs with a powerful performance, hitting two home runs.

In 2017, Friedl divided his time between playing for the Dayton Dragons and the Daytona Tortugas. He ended the season impressively, with a .273 combined batting average, seven home runs, 38 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases across 114 games. His performance remained steady in 2018, recording a .284/.381/.384 batting average with the Daytona and Pensacola Blue Wahoos, five home runs, 51 RBIs, and thirty stolen bases through 131 games.

Friedl spent the 2019 season with the Chattanooga Lookouts where he scored a .235/.347/.385/.732 average with five home runs and 28 RBIs. However, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season and he didn’t play that year. In spite of this, in the subsequent year, he bounced back on the field for the Louisville Bats where he scored .264/.357/.422/.779 average with 12 home runs and 36 RBIs.

September 18, 2021, marked a significant career milestone for Friedl when his contract was promoted to the Reds’ active roster. His MLB debut took place the same day as a pinch hitter. Friedl made a strong impression as he recorded his first major league hit, a home run, on September 19.

Friedl’s progress was stalled during the 2024 spring training when he fractured his wrist.

Off the field, Friedl comes from a large and supportive family with three older sisters. His second cousin, John Calipari, is notable in the sports world as the men’s basketball coach for the Arkansas Razorbacks.