Maldonado was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, and came out of St. Francis, in Puerto Rico (the same school that produced OF Luis Lopez for Tampa Bay).
Maldonado was drafted by the Mets in the 10th round of the 2004 draft. He played all of 2004 with the GCL Mets, where he hit only .185/.272/.238 in 151 at bats. 2005 brought a better return to the GCL level (.256/.355/.359 in 117 Abs) and he was bumped up to finish the season with St. Lucie (.313/.421/.375 in 16 at bats.
2006 brought a year assignment to rookie team Kingsport, where he batted .281/.363/.530 in 185 at bats. Good pop in Maldy’s bat too. He led the team in home runs and RBIs, finished 2nd in the Appalachian League in slugging percentage, and was tied for 2nd place with 28 extra base hits, before joining the Brooklyn Cyclones for the playoffs.
2007 brought an assignment to Savannah, which started out slowly in April; however, Maldonado caught fire in May and continued to pour it on the rest of the year. He was named player of the week in the 2nd week of July for the league and went down with a broken finger in early August. “El Toro’s” season stats were all-star like: .310/.349/.500/.849 in 306 Abs (10 HRs 39 RBIs, 11 SBs).
In September 2007, Maldonado was named the winner of the Sterling Award, given to the MVP of the Savannah Sand Gnats. Also in September 2007, ‘BA’ ranked Maldonado as the 23rd highest SAL lesgue player in extra-base hits, adding: “Maldonado, a 10th-round pick in 2004 from Puerto Rico, has hit for power two years in a row now—and he was one of the few bright spots for a Savannah team that was probably the minors’ worst.”
‘Maldo’ had a disappointing 2008 with St. Lucie, going .232/.284/.327.
In 2009, Maldonado played again for St. Lucie, and this time led the league with 18 home runs. He also was second in the league with 73 runs batted in , fifth in OPS (.813), and second in slugging percentage (to teammate Kirk Nieuwenhuis).
1-1-10 Forecast: Maldonado has obviously earned himself a promotion to Binghamton, but he still needs to get off to a quicker start. The first night I ever saw him play was the opening game in Savannah a couple of years ago. Maldonado hit a home run over the left field bleachers, past the park outside, and bounced in the road, well over 450 feet from home plate. He has this kind of power and bat speed andall he has to do is put it together for an entire season. He and his teammate Nieuwenhuis are the Mets only chance of developing a power hitter in the next couple of years.
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