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Karaviotis’ career back on track

Maui High grad hitting .357 as he returns from shoulder injury

By Robert Collias 6 min read

Mark Karaviotis' baseball life -- on hold the last 18 months -- is back on track.

The Maui High School graduate is playing for the Cleburne (Texas) Railroaders of the Double-A level American Association, an independent partner league with Major League Baseball.

He is hitting .357 through four games, with one home run, two doubles and six RBIs. That kind of start is something that he has been longing for after a tough, but productive, 2021 and missing all of the 2022 season.

"In 2021 when I was with Kane County, I dove for a ball in left field (in May), dislocated my shoulder and missed a couple weeks from that," Karaviotis said via phone from Milwaukee, where he had an off day Monday after an 18-hour bus ride from Texas on Sunday. "I had shoulder reconstructive surgery with the Diamondbacks in 2018 and the medical staff in Kane County MRI'd me after my shoulder dislocated (in 2021) to make sure that all the anchors and everything that they repaired were still intact and it came back all good.

"So, I took about 10 days, two weeks off, and I came back and played for the entire rest of the season. That offseason of 2022, over the fall and winter, just working out getting ready for a couple free-agent workouts, my shoulder re-subluxed, it came out again just doing a simple box jump."

Karaviotis made an appointment with the same Diamondbacks doctor who did his surgery in 2018. A simple X-ray showed an injury that could have ended Karaviotis' career.

"The X-ray came back that I had an 85 percent fracture in basically the bone in my shoulder that keeps the joint intact," he said. "So I'd had a broken shoulder for the better part of eight or nine months, I had no idea,"

The news was devastating for the former University of Oregon standout who was part of the minor league purge in 2020 during COVID -- he had made it back to professional baseball and hit a career-high .327 in 2021 for Kane County, an independent team that is also in an MLB partner league at the Double-A level. All of that, despite the hidden shoulder injury.

"I had a really good offensive year in 2021, was getting ready for a couple free-agent workouts, the future was looking pretty bright, basically the hopes of getting re-signed and continuing on with this dream," Karaviotis said. "Then got hit with that news, 'Hey, you've got a broken arm, have to have surgery,' and had to miss the entirety of last year. It was definitely way more of an intense surgery than I had in 2018 because I had to deal with bones and screws and whatnot, a little more intense than just sewing up a couple muscles."

Karaviotis said he is 100 percent now after having that surgery in March 2022.

"I got fully cleared right around New Year's time for all baseball activity," he said. "I've got six anchors and I've got two screws in there right now. I set everything off -- every time I fly they pat my shoulder down and I tell them that I've had a couple shoulder operations and they're like, 'You're good to go.' It's funny every time I want to fly somewhere now."

Now 27 years old, this chance is not something that Karaviotis is taking for granted.

"This time last year -- I was just talking to my dad about it getting ready for opening day last week -- I wasn't sure if I would ever play again," he said. "I really wasn't sure what to expect ... coming off one of the best offensive years of my life I was definitely going to give it everything I could to try and get back on the field because ultimately if I hung it up because of injury after that year that I had, I would probably never forgive myself."

Karaviotis had more than half a dozen independent league teams reach out with offers and he also had two affiliated organization offers, including the Kansas City Royals, but he had to take several things into consideration when choosing where he was going to play.

None of those reasons was more important than his 6-year-old daughter Teagan -- he has a 50-50 custody agreement with his ex-wife to care for Teagan.

"Ultimately narrowing down my options and as a single dad, signing here on top of having three other teammates on this team already that I had played with the Diamondbacks, our hitting coach here was my hitting coach with the Diamondbacks for parts of three seasons, Jose Mattos, and that was a big factor," he said.

However, it wasn't perfect for Karaviotis, who lives near his daughter in Arizona during the offseason.

"The travel here in Cleburne is brutal, we've got an average of 12-to-13-hour bus rides," Karaviotis said. "It's not fun. I went ahead and tapped into my bank account and booked a flight home from this trip -- it was about 120 bucks instead of 18 hours on a bus. That being said, the road trips are long, but fortunately the homestands are long, too, 10, 12 games rather than one series.

"My parents will be able to bring my daughter for those lengthy homestands. Also, familiar clubhouse, familiar coaching staff and our home schedule happened to play a big part in my decision."

Teagan is now old enough to appreciate what her dad does for a living.

"After not playing last year -- she had an idea of what I did when she was 4, but now that she's 6 1/2 she really understands that daddy is a professional baseball player," Karaviotis said. "She's associating that with getting to hang out with the mascot, getting to have churros and popcorn and lemonade at the ballgames.

"But every time I FaceTime her after the games, she asks me if I hit a home run. That's the only thing a 6-year-old cares about is if her dad is hitting homers. Chicks dig the long ball, certainly daughters do, too. It was awesome -- I hit one the other night and she put her hands up in the air and started cheering. She's out here next week for 11 games, so hopefully I can hit at least one or two for her."

Karaviotis says overseas opportunities may be in his future if Major League Baseball remains elusive. He was drafted in the 39th round by Arizona in 2013 out of Maui High and drafted again by Arizona in 2016 in the 19th round when he signed.

"Right now the goal is to obviously get re-signed and ultimately the same dream that I've had since I was 4 years old, to be in the big leagues, but at the same time this game takes guys to some pretty unbelievable places," he said. "So, I've thought about playing overseas and any opportunity to finally be able to make some money in this game I would definitely consider it. But like you said, 27 years old, time is definitely running out, but at the end of the day I'm in better shape now than I was coming out of college my junior year."

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com

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