Rafael santana

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Rafael Santana

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Rafael Francisco Santana de la Cruz (born January 31, 1958, in La Romana, Dominican Republic) is a former Major League shortstop most known for being a member of the 1986 New York Mets World Series Championship Team. He is currently the manager of the Class A Winston-Salem Warthogs of the Carolina League, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. [1]

Originally signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1976, Santana spent several years in their farm system before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals on February 16, 1981, in exchange for a player to be named later. On June 7 of that year, the Cards sent pitcher George Frazier to the Yankees to complete the deal.

Santana earned his first call-up with the Cardinals in 1983, playing shortstop, and second and third base. In 30 games, Santana had only 3 hits in 14 at-bats for a .214 batting average to go along with 2 RBIs. On January, 17, 1984, he was released by the Cardinals and signed that same day with the New York Mets. During 1984, he played 51 games for the Mets, hitting a career-best .271 with a home run and 12 RBIs as the primary back-up for starting shortstop Jose Oquendo.

After the Mets traded Oquendo to the Cardinals in the offseason, Santana became the regular Mets shortstop for 1985, which he would hold for the next 3 seasons, including their 1986 World Series championship squad. During the regular season, he hit just .218 with a home run and 28 RBI, but interestingly enough finished tied for tenth in the National League in intentional walks with 12. Santana started all 13 games for the Mets during the 1986 playoffs, and established an NLCS record for most putouts (13), assists (18) and chances accepted (31) by a shortstop in a six-game series against the Houston Astros.

After the 1987 campaign where he set career-highs in home runs with 5 and drove in 44 runs (another career-high) with the Mets, Santana was released and re-signed with the cross-town Yankees for the 1988 season, where he hit .240, 4 home runs and 38 runs batted in. After missing the entire 1989 season with an elbow injury, Santana was released on November 7 of that year.

In January, 1990, Santana signed with the Cleveland Indians, where he played 7 games and was reunited with '86 Mets Keith Hernandez and Stan Jefferson for all of 7 games. After being released on April 25 of that year, he reitred from the big leagues at the age of 32 after seven seasons. During his career, he compiled a lifetime .246 average with 13 home runs and 156 RBI in 668 games.

After his career, he managed Azucareros of the Dominican Winter League in 1992-93 and spent four seasons as a coach in the Kansas City Royals farm system at Class A Baseball City, Class A Wilmington, Class A Eugene, and Class A Springfield, spending one season with each team between 1992 and 1995. After this, Santana worked three seasons in the Boston Red Sox organization, overseeing the Red Sox Dominican program in 1996 before serving as a roving infield instructor and hitting coach at Class A Lowell in 1997 and 1998 before moving on to the White Sox. He spent four seasons as the Sox's minor league infield instructor before being promoted to the major league club in the same capacity while also serving as their first base coach for two seasons before returning to his previous position as roving infield instructor in 2005. On January 1, 2006, Rafael Santana was named manager of the Winston-Salem Warthogs, his first managerial job in the United States.

On August 19, 2006, Santana attended a 20th Anniversary Reunion of the 1986 Mets World Series Championship Team at Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York.

Santana is married to his wife Gloria, and has three children: Audrey, Alexander and Rigoberto.

External links

Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis

2004 biography of Santana from the White Sox's website

Announcement of Santana's hiring as manager of the Warthogs