Ángel Salazar (baseball)
Argenis Antonio Salazar Yepez (born November 4, 1961 in Anaco, Venezuela) is a former shortstop in Major League Baseball who played for the Montreal Expos (1983–84), Kansas City Royals (1986–87) and Chicago Cubs (1988). He batted and threw right-handed.
| Ángel Salazar | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Shortstop | |||
| Born: November 4, 1961 Anaco, Venezuela | |||
| |||
| MLB debut | |||
| August 10, 1983, for the Montreal Expos | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| October 1, 1988, for the Chicago Cubs | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .212 | ||
| Home runs | 2 | ||
| Runs batted in | 59 | ||
| Teams | |||
Salazar, who was known by the nickname "Angel", was signed by Montreal as an amateur free agent in 1980. He made his debut in the 1983 season.
Following a long string of shortstops coming from Venezuela, Salazar had below average range but compensated somewhat with a strong and accurate arm. He struggled with the bat, most of time near the Mendoza Line.
In 1984, Salazar had arguably the worst season in MLB history by a regular starter. In 80 games, he had a batting average of .155 and an adjusted OPS of 9 (League average being 100). He wasn't much better on the base-paths, having one stolen base and one caught stealing (matching his career stolen base percentage of 50%). And while Salazar had a reputation as a good fielding shortstop, in reality both his range factor and fielding percentage were well below the league average of shortstops in 1984.
In a five-year career, Salazar had 188 hits, with 2 home runs and 59 RBI in 886 at bats.