Rey Ordóñez

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Reynaldo Ordóñez Pereira (born November 11, 1971 in Havana, Cuba) is a former Major League Baseball shortstop who has previously played for the New York Mets, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Chicago Cubs, and Seattle Mariners in Major League Baseball.

In 1993 in Buffalo, New York, Ordóñez became the second Cuban baseball player in history to defect to the United States. Ordóñez was a promising young player for the Havana Industriales club in Cuba at the time.

In 1994, Ordóñez signed with the Mets as an undrafted free agent. Ordonez joined the class "A" St. Lucie Mets of the Florida State League and later moved up to class double "A" seeing playing time with the Eastern League's Binghamton Mets as well in 1994. While in the minors, he was constantly compared to future hall-of-fame shortstop Ozzie Smith. Ordóñez made his major league debut in the 1996 season. On opening day in 1996, Ozzie Smith and the Cardinals faced the Mets in Ordóñez's major league debut. After Ordóñez's stunning relay throw to home plate from his knees during his first major league game, Ozzie Smith responded "I can definitely say he is the second-coming of me." Ordóñez went on to win three consecutive Gold Glove Awards for his outstanding defensive play with the Mets. During 1999 and 2000, Ordóñez set a Major League record for shortstops by playing 101 consecutive games without committing a fielding error. Furthermore, in 1999, Ordóñez committed only four errors while posting a near mint .994 fielding percentage, a performance that one could argue may be the best defensive season ever by a shortstop.^[1]

Offense was another story for Ordóñez. Though he rarely struck out, and was capable of laying down sacrifice bunts, he was otherwise one of the worst hitters in baseball. His career average was just .248, he was not a good base stealer, did not walk much, and had almost no power. His lifetime OPS of .599 was almost 200 points lower than Major League average (.782 in 2000, for example). [1]

Ordóñez's defensive play never truly recovered after breaking his left arm on 29 May 2000 when attempting to tag the Dodgers' F.P. Santangelo out at second base, an injury that prevented the perennial Gold Glove contender from playing in the 2000 World Series (the Subway Series) against the Yankees. Given that his offense had always been a major weak point, with his defense diminished, his value as a player became drastically reduced. Taunted by unhappy Mets fans throughout the 2002 season, particularly because the much-heralded double play combination of Ordóñez and Roberto Alomar failed to produce, Ordóñez lashed out in a year-end interview calling the Mets fans "too stupid".^[2] Later in the year, Ordóñez was traded to Tampa Bay. Ordóñez missed most of the 2003 season due to injuries and played briefly for the Chicago Cubs before being given his release.

In August 2004, Ordóñez became a U. S. citizen. In 2004 incoming rookie Khalil Greene beat out Ordóñez for the position of short stop with the San Diego Padres during spring training. ^[3] He was unsure at the time whether he would ever play Major League Baseball again, and in fact did not play for any MLB organization during the 2005 and 2006 seasons.

On November 14, 2006, Ordóñez was signed to a minor league contract by the Seattle Mariners.^[4]

On April 1, 2007, Ordóñez was reassigned to the Mariners minor league camp, but stated to the Seattle Times newspaper that at the age of 35, he was "too old for that." According to reports, Ordóñez was originally included on the Mariners final 25-man roster, but an 11th hour trade with the San Francisco Giants for outfielder Jason Ellison led to his reassignment. Ordóñez hopes to catch on with another Major League franchise soon, and Mariners General Manager Bill Bavasi has said he and the team will do the best they can to assist Ordóñez with his comeback bid.^[5]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ 8 Upper by Tom Scocca: Fools' Gold | 11/17/1999
2. ^ http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/0928/1438053.html , Sep 28, 2002
3. ^ Grounding out to Greene By Michael Huang.
4. ^ http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/ , Nov 14, 2006.
5. ^ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2003646991_marinernotes02.html/ , April 2, 2006.

[edit] External links

• Career statistics at Baseball Reference
• Career statistics at The Baseball Cube
• 2004 daily statistics at ESPN
• Rey Ordonez Acrobat In Spikes

See also

• List of NL Gold Glove Winners at Shortstop
• List of players from Cuba in Major League Baseball