For the third straight season, Max McDowell will be on the doorstep of a major league call-up.
A Norwin alum and eighth-year minor leaguer, McDowell received a promotion Monday when he was elevated to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The 29-year-old catcher played in 56 games this season with the Double-A Reading Phillies, slashing .210/.358/.296 with five home runs, 20 runs scored, and 24 RBIs.
Max McDowell wasted no time depositing a two-run shot to left! pic.twitter.com/L6GqVsCOPJ
— Reading Fightin Phils (@ReadingFightins) July 19, 2023
Max McDowell serves up two-more runs! pic.twitter.com/NRutkBF0AJ
— Reading Fightin Phils (@ReadingFightins) August 1, 2023
Last season, McDowell was bumped to the New York Yankees’ Triple-A team, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, where he hit .193 and drove in 16 in 66 games.
He was invited as a non-roster player to Yankees spring training but later elected to become a free agent in November, thereby catching on with the Phillies.
McDowell actually had a run-in with the Iron Pigs last August when he was hit in the head with a pitch and charged the mound, resulting in the benches clearing.
The Yankees and Phillies Triple-A affiliates just got into a brawl after Max McDowell was hit in the head by a pitch and charged the mound???? pic.twitter.com/Lu6tPHpo1Y
— Eli Fishman (@elijfishman) August 29, 2021
In 2021, McDowell played 45 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, again going from Double-A to Triple-A.
His pro career began in 2015 when the Milwaukee Brewers selected him in the 13th round of the MLB amateur draft out of Connecticut.
Taking a look at his full body of work, McDowell has a .224 average (.650 OPS) with 22 homers, 218 runs, and 165 RBIs in 543 games in the minors.
