Graduated from Rochester (Ill.) High School, where he played four seasons of baseball. In 2016 he was the No. 2 player in the state of Illinois according to Perfect Game, and also was the Illinois Gatorade Player of the Year after hitting .500 with 15 doubles, nine homers and 42 steals as a senior...He and his wife, Sadie, were married this past offseason in Louisville, Ky...Tyler and Sadie have a golden doodle named Kaiser...He grew up rooting for the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Falcons despite living in Illinois. One of his favorite players was Chipper Jones...Fitzgerald used 2020 as a time to finish his finance degree at Louisville. He officially graduated in December 2020...His father Mike was a two-time first-round choice (1983 January and 1984 June secondary Drafts) and appeared in 13 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1988...His brother, also named Mike, played collegiate baseball at Indiana State and professionally with the San Diego Padres organization...Selected by Boston in the 30th round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of high school but elected to attend Louisville...Started 66-of-69 games at shortstop as a junior, hitting .315 with eight homers and a team-best 65 RBI...Helped lead the Cardinals to a College World Series berth in 2019. Louisville lost to eventual champs Vanderbilt in the semis.
2024
Enjoyed a breakout rookie campaign for SF, with his 132 wRC+ leading qualified rookies...Also ranked among Major League rookies (min. 60 games) in OPS (.831, first), average (.280, second), SLG (.497, second), OBP (.334, fifth) and home runs (15, tied for sixth)...His 17 stolen bases led the team...The last Giants rookie with 17 or more steals was Rajai Davis, who also had 17 in 2007...Fitzgerald’s 2.3 fWAR after the break was tied for 10th-best in the NL...Finished the year with 3.0 fWAR...Out of the eight MLB rookie position players to have a fWAR of at least 3.0, Fitzgerald was the only one to do so in fewer than 100 games (Sports Info Solutions)...His 31.7% strikeout rate was seventh-highest in the NL (min. 300 PA)...Appeared in 72 games at shortstop (67 starts)...Also saw action at first base (two games), second base (six), center field (eight) and left field (four)...Also pitched in three games...Broke camp with SF and made his first career Opening Day roster...Optioned to Triple-A Sacramento on May 19 after appearing in 18 games over the season’s first six weeks and hitting .269 with a .751 OPS...Named PCL Player of the Week for the week of May 20-26, after hitting six homers and driving in 13 runs in six games...Recalled from Triple-A on May 28 and optioned back on June 9...Recalled for a third and final time on June 28 and stuck on the MLB roster the rest of the year...After Nick Ahmed was designated for assignment on July 9, Fitzgerald was given some runway at shortstop and settled in. Homered in five consecutive starts from July 9 to July 23…It was the longest homer streak by a Giant since Barry Bonds did it in seven straight contests with an at-bat in 2004 (eight homers)...No Giants rookie since 1900 had ever homered in five straight games...Fitzgerald had just three home runs in 44 career games prior to the run. He joined Bonds (four times), Robby Thompson (1993), Jack Clark (1978) and Willie Mays (twice) as the only Giants to homer in five consecutive games since the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958...His 12-game hitting streak from July 6-30 was the longest by an SF rookie since C Buster Posey had a 21-game streak July 4-28, 2010...Named July’s NL Rookie of the Month, the fourth Giant to win the award all-time and first since Luis González in May 2022…The other two to win it were Pedro Feliz (July 2021) and Buster Posey (July 2010)...He slashed .321/.390/.849 in July with two doubles, one triple, eight homers, 15 RBI and 13 runs scored in 16 games...Hit 11 homers in a 17-game span from July 9-Aug. 5, the fourth shortstop in NL/AL history to have such a stretch, joining Trea Turner (2023 with PHI), Troy Tulowitzki (2010 with COL) and Alex Rodríguez (2002 with TEX)...Was the first Giant to homer 11+ times in a 17-game span since Bonds in 2003...The only other Giants in team history to do this besides Fitzgerald and Bonds are Willie McCovey, Jim Ray Hart, Willie Mays, Walker Cooper and Mel Ott...Hit his 15th career home run on Aug. 13, joining Mays as the only two in Giants franchise history with 15 or more home runs in their first 59 career games with a PA...Mays had 16 homers in 59 games in 1951.
2023
Made his MLB debut on Sept. 21 at Los Angeles-NL … logged his first career hit, a double, in that game off Shelby Miller … hit his first home run a day later, a two-run homer off Ryan Yarbrough...Played 19 games with Double-A Richmond before a promotion to Triple-A Sacramento on May 2 … hit .292 with 87 runs, 26 doubles, seven triples, 22 home runs, 78 RBI, 32 stolen bases and an .876 OPS in 121 MiLB games between Double and Triple-A...Won Eastern League Player of the Month in April, and PCL Player of the Week May 14...His 34 combined stolen bases between MiLB and MLB were a career-high and second-most in the SF organization behind Grant McCray (52)...Turned in his second consecutive 20+ homer, 20+ steal campaign. Logged his first two MLB steals on Sept. 27 vs. SD … had a sprint speed of 29.5 ft/sec on the first stolen base, which was tied for fastest stolen base by a Giant in 2023.
2022
Spent the season with Double-A Richmond and hit .229 with 74 runs, 20 doubles, 21 homers, 58 RBI and 20 stolen bases over 125 contests... Hit .194 in his first 83 games of the year then posted a .286 average over his last 42 games... On May 29 at The Diamond against the Hartford Yard Goats, he set single-game team records with 13 total bases and five runs scored while also tying the team record with five hits.
