Rafael Santana

Infobox MLB retired
bgcolor1=#ff5731
bgcolor2=#003581
textcolor1=white
textcolor2=white
name=Rafael Santana
position=Shortstop
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1958|1|31
debutdate=April 5
debutyear=1983
debutteam=St. Louis Cardinals
finaldate=April 23
finalyear=1990
finalteam=Cleveland Indians
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.246
stat2label=Home Runs
stat2value=13
stat3label=RBI
stat3value=156
teams=
*St. Louis Cardinals (by|1983)
*New York Mets (by|1984-by|1987)
*New York Yankees (by|1988)
*Cleveland Indians (by|1990)
highlights=
*World Series Champion: 1986

Rafael Francisco Santana de la Cruz (born January 31, 1958, in La Romana, Dominican Republic) is a former Major League Baseball shortstop who played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1983), New York Mets (1984-1987), New York Yankees (1988), and Cleveland Indians (1990). Santana is most known for being a member of the 1986 New York Mets World Series championship team. He is currently the manager of the Class AA Birmingham Barons of the Southern League, a minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.

Playing career

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 pitcher George Frazier.

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 the 1984 season, 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 1986 regular season, he hit just .218 with a home run and 28 RBI. 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 (5) and RBIs (44) with the Mets, Santana was traded to the cross-town Yankees for the 1988 season, where he hit .240 with 4 home runs and 38 RBIs. 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 1986 Mets teammates Keith Hernandez, Jesse Orosco, and Stan Jefferson. After being released on April 25 of that year, he retired from the big leagues at the age of 32. During his career, Santana played seven seasons and compiled a lifetime .246 average with 13 home runs and 156 RBI in 668 games.

Coaching career

After his playing career, Santana made a seamless foray into coaching. He started by managing Azucareros del Este of the Dominican Winter League in 1992-93 and spent four seasons as a coach in the Kansas City Royals farm system at Baseball City, dn|Wilmington, Eugene, and Springfield (all Class A), 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 and 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. Santana returned 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. [http://www.warthogs.com/content/News/items/News_20060116_15-17-7?c=on]

He is a member of the Mets Alumni Association and along with past Mets players, still makes personal appearances on behalf of the team. 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, which took place prior to that night's game between the Mets and the Colorado Rockies. [http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060819&content_id=1618842&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym] In January 2007 the Birmingham Barons announced that Santana would take over the team from Chris Chron.

Santana and his wife, Gloria, have three children: Audry, Alexander, and Dhayan.

External links

* [http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cws/team/cws_team_coachesstaff_bio.jsp?club_context=cws&coachorstaffid=213103121128 2004 biography of Santana from the White Sox's website]