Covington Catholic grad Luke Maile didn’t waste any time with his new team.
The former Cincinnati Red was called up by the Kansas City Royals on May 2 after playing with the Royals Triple A team in Omaha. He got the start on Sunday against the Orioles and went 1-for-3 with a homerun and walk in the Royals 11-6 victory.
Maile, who played for the Reds the last two seasons and appeared in 133 games in that span, signed a minor league deal with the Royals in the offseason. He opted out when he didn’t make the Opening Day roster but returned on a fresh deal shortly thereafter.
He had been hitting the ball well in Triple A, batting .286 with a homer and 10 RBI to go with a .434 on-base percentage in 12 games.
The 34-year-old veteran is in his 10th Major League season, playing for the Rays, Blue Jays, Brewers, Guardians, Reds and Royals in that time. He’s a lifetime .208/.274/.319 hitter, serving as a backup catcher known for his defense. Last season with the Reds he had the second-highest caught stealing rate in the National League, nabbing 30.6% of would-be base-stealers.
Maile is a 2009 CovCath graduate. He’s the school’s career record holder in batting average (.481), hits (198), doubles (44), triples (13) home runs (29), runs scored (178), runs batted in (187) and bases on balls (115).
He was Kentucky’s Mr. Baseball his senior year with the Colonels and started his career in the Majors with Tampa Bay in 2015. Maile was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2009 but did not sign, instead choosing to play at the University of Kentucky, where he was second-team all-Southeastern Conference and a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy before he was through. Tampa Bay selected Maile in the eighth round of the 2012 amateur draft.
