"I was feeling so good at the dish, and to get hurt on a good swing, and something you dream about as a kid — hitting a home run in the big league — for my shoulder to blow out at that point, it was frustrating for sure. I mean, it's stuff I can't control though. It wasn't like there was something I didn't do, and that was the reason my shoulder didn't hold up. It was something out of my control. It happened, and I'm just trying to look at the big picture and get it healthy." - The Madras Pioneer (Will Denner, Darrell Ceciliani has something left to prove, 04/11/2018)

Darrell Ceciliani was born in Tracy, California, though he moved to Madras, Oregon when he was young. He was a big league outfielder in three brief looks between 2015 and 2017 for the New York Mets and the Toronto Blue Jays.

He was drafted by scout Jim Reeves and the New York Mets in the 4th round in 2009, between Matt Heidenreich and Adam Warren, and began his career hitting .234/.313/.310 with 29 runs scored, 14 RBI and 14 steals (in 16 attempts) in 42 games for the Kingsport Mets.

The next year, in 2010, while playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones, Ceciliani was all over the New York-Penn League leaderboard: first in average (21 points over Phil Wunderlich and Rylan Sandoval), third in OBP (after Robby Price and Matt Curry), 6th in slugging, third in OPS (trailing Cory Vaughn and Sandoval), first in runs scored (3 over Marcell Ozuna and Nick Longmire), first in hits (95, 7 more than Joe Bonfe), tied for third in doubles (19), led in triples (3 more than Ryan Fisher), third in total bases (144, behind Ozuna and Vaughn), 5th in steals and 1st in times caught stealing.

Baseball America named him the loop's 11th best prospect (between Colton Cain and Domingo Santana) and the Mets' 14th best prospect.

In 2011, he finished 5th in the Mets system in stolen bases. Baseball America ranked him New York's 19th-best prospect. In 2012, he hit .329/.402/.459 with 28 hits in 23 games for the St. Lucie Mets while battling a hamstring injury. He hit .268/.322/.380 with 31 stolen bases in 38 tries in 113 games for the Binghamton Mets in 2013. He was second to José Ramírez in steals in the Eastern League and led Mets farmhands, 6 ahead of Alonzo Harris.

Darrell saw his lengthiest big league look in his debut season, playing 39 games while hitting only .206/.270/.279 in 39 games for the Mets in 2015. He was designated for assignment the following January and flipped to the Toronto Blue Jays, for whom he hit .156 in fleeting action (16 games over 2016 and 2017).

Ceciliani's final big league plate appearance was a doozy. Against the Atlanta Braves on May 18th, 2017 he socked a two-run home run off Julio Teheran, partially dislocating his shoulder with the swing. He was replaced in the game by Dwight Smith Jr. and never returned, playing a final 21 games in 2018 with the New Britain Bees of the Atlantic League.

His brother, Devin Ceciliani, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2013 but did not sign and never played professionally.

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)