Christopher Adrian Colabello (born October 24, 1983) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and outfielder. He played parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays, after playing seven seasons in independent baseball.

Born in Framingham, Massachusetts, Colabello grew up in Rimini, Italy. His mother, Silvanna, was born in Rimini, and his father, Lou, played baseball in Italy for seven years, later pitching in the 1984 Olympics. The family moved back to Massachusetts in 1991.

In 2011 Chris tore up the minor leagues, hitting .348/.410/.600 and was named All-Star first baseman for the second time and took home MVP and Baseball America Independent League Player of the Year honors.

Colabello then followed in his father's footsteps, playing on the Italian national team for the 2012 European Championship. As Italy's cleanup hitter and first baseman, he hit .355/.444/.516 with 8 runs scored and 10 RBI in 8 games. He also starred for Italy in the 2013 WBC, going 6 for 18 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI in 5 games. and led the Azzurri in RBI, one more than Anthony Rizzo, and had two-thirds of their homers. He finished among the Classic leaders in home runs and RBI.

On May 22, 2013 the Twins called Colabello up he debuted the same day against the Atlanta Braves. It was a scramble to make it to the game, as the team bus he was on was involved in an accident as he was heading back to Rochester from Allentown, PA in the early hours of the morning. He just managed to reach Atlanta in time for the game, where he found himself starting in right field and hitting 6th. Chris got his first hit off Doug Fister and his first homer against Yoervis Medina in the 13th inning for a winning blow on July 26th.

Back & forth from MLB and MiLB, He finished his Rochester campaign at .352/.427/.639 with 24 homers and 76 RBI in 89 games, leading the IL in average, slugging, OBP, and OPS. Despite his significant time in the majors, he was an easy choice as International League MVP.

On May 20th, 2015, Chris began a hitting streak while with the Blue Jays that reached 17 games on June 7th. He ended up playing 101 games for Toronto, hitting .321 with 19 doubles, 15 homers and 54 RBI, with an OPS+ of 141. He also hit a pair of postseason homers, one each in the Division Series and the ALCS.

However a promising career was derailed when, on April 22, 2016, Colabello was handed an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a banned PED, which meant that he would be ineligible for any postseason play. Chris has denied knowingly taking a banned substance. He began a rehab assignment with the Class A Dunedin Blue Jays on July 13th, and never made it back to the majors.

Chris played in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and played for the Italian national baseball team in the 2018 Super 6 Baseball Tournament. He also played for Team Italy in the 2019 European Baseball Championship.

Since retiring, Chris has been active on podcasts and media. He is active on Twitter @CC20rake

(excerpted from Baseball Almanac, BR Bullpen & Wikipedia)