Ramón Santiago

Ramón David Santiago Sanchez (born August 31, 1979) is a Dominican-American[1] former professional baseball player, and the current first base coach for the Detroit Tigers. Santiago played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an infielder for the Detroit Tigers from 2002 to 2003, the Seattle Mariners from 2004 to 2005, again with the Tigers from 2006–2013 and with the Cincinnati Reds in 2014. He spent most of his major league career at shortstop, but also played a significant amount of time at second base, and occasionally third base. He is the only MLB player in history to hit a grand slam in his last at bat with a walk off home run. He accomplished this feat playing with the Cincinnati Reds with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning on September 27th, 2014 on a 1-0 pitch from the Pittsburgh Pirates' Bobby LaFromboise.

Ramón Santiago
Santiago with the Detroit Tigers in 2010
Detroit Tigers – No. 39
Shortstop / Second baseman / Coach
Born: (1979-08-31) August 31, 1979
Las Matas de Farfán, Dominican Republic
Batted: Switch Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 17, 2002, for the Detroit Tigers
Last MLB appearance
September 27, 2014, for the Cincinnati Reds
MLB statistics
Batting average.243
Home runs30
Runs batted in214
Teams
As player

As coach

Santiago playing for the Cincinnati Reds in 2014

Career

Detroit Tigers

Santiago made his major league debut for the Tigers in 2002. Used mainly as a backup, he was still named to the 2002 Topps All-Star Rookie Roster. During his rookie season, Santiago hit first-inning lead-off home runs on consecutive days (June 3, 2002[2] and June 4, 2002[3]). In the June 3 game, he hit a second home run in the seventh inning. In 2003, Santiago assumed the starting shortstop role for the Tigers.

Seattle Mariners

Santiago struggled and was traded, along with minor league player Juan Gonzalez, to Seattle in exchange for Carlos Guillén.

During Santiago's two seasons with the Mariners, he played in only 27 games, spending most of his time in the minor leagues for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. While playing for the Rainiers, Santiago was selected as the team's MVP[4] and Best Glove in 2005. He was also selected as the 2005 Top Second Baseman for the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.[5] However, Santiago was released following the 2005 season.

Second stint with the Detroit Tigers

The Mariners organization released Santiago after the 2005 season, and he was re-signed by the Tigers as a free agent for 2006.

Santiago played in 43 regular-season games and started in 18 games for the American League Champion Tigers in 2006. He played shortstop, second base and third base and did not make an error in 205​2⁄3 innings of play. Santiago started at shortstop in Game 1 and Game 2 of the 2006 World Series.

Santiago played for the Cibao Gigantes in the Dominican Winter League in 2009 and 2010. He led the team to a second-place finish in the Dominican Winter League Championships in 2010 and was asked to play shortstop for the Escogido Leones on Team Dominicana in the 2010 Caribbean World Series, which the Dominican won as Santiago hit .316 at the plate.

During the Tigers run to the 2011 American League Central Division championship, Santiago played in 101 games, mostly at second base, and hit .260. His season highlights included a walk-off home run on August 30, which gave the Tigers a 2–1 victory over the Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the 10th inning. He also drove in the winning run with a walk-off triple in a June 13 game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

On November 30, 2011, the Tigers re-signed Santiago to a two-year extension, which kept him on the team through the 2013 season.[6]

With the return of Omar Infante in July 2012, Santiago lost his every day second base position. He still played some games as a pinch hitter and as a late-inning defensive replacement. He also started at second and shortstop when needed. In a July 2013 game versus the Toronto Blue Jays, Colby Rasmus slid into second base, slide-tackling Infante, who was injured and placed on the disabled list. Santiago was called into the game and finished it out, and played several more games at second base until Infante returned.

Cincinnati Reds

Santiago was a non-roster invitee to the 2014 Cincinnati Reds training camp, and he made the team as a reserve infielder.[7] On September 27, he hit a walk–off grand slam in the 13th inning against Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Bobby LaFromboise[8] in what would be the last at–bat of Santiago's Major League career.[9] He elected free agency on October 30, 2014.

Toronto Blue Jays

Santiago signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on January 30, 2015.[10][11] During a spring training game against the Atlanta Braves on March 15, Santiago broke his left collarbone.[12] He was released on March 30.[13] The Blue Jays re-signed him to a minor league contract on April 6. He started the season on the disabled list of the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons,[14] and was released on July 24.[15]

Post-playing career

Santiago rejoined the Detroit Tigers organization as a coach and served as the first base coach for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.[16] He shifted to third base coach prior to the 2020 season.[17] Following the hiring of new Tigers manager A. J. Hinch and third base coach Chip Hale for the 2021 season, the team announced Santiago would return to coaching first base.[18]

References
  1. Kulfan, Ted. "Tigers coach Ramon Santiago excited to become U.S. citizen". The Detroit News. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  2. "June 3, 2002 Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
  3. "June 4, 2002 Boston Red Sox at Detroit Tigers Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved August 9, 2008.
  4. "Santiago signs with Tigers in Minors". Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  5. "About Ramon". Retrieved September 9, 2011.
  6. Tigers re-sign Santiago to a two-year contract MLB.com November 30, 2011
  7. "Cincinnati Reds Non-Roster Invite Ramon Santiago Makes Team".
  8. Rosecrans, C. Trent (September 27, 2014). "Santiago hits walk-off grand slam for Reds win". cincinnati.com. Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  9. "Home Run in Last At-Bat". baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  10. "Ramon Santiago agrees to minor league deal with Blue Jays". ESPN.com. Associated Press. January 30, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  11. Laymance, Austin (January 30, 2015). "Blue Jays ink Santiago to Minor League pact". MLB.com. Archived from the original on February 3, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2015.
  12. "Blue Jays' Ramon Santiago breaks collarbone in spring game". thestar.com. March 15, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  13. Simmons, Jeff (March 30, 2015). "Blue Jays send Barton to minors, release Santiago". Sportsnet. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
  14. d'Oliveira, Sean (April 6, 2015). "Blue Jays sign infielder Ramon Santiago to minor-league deal". fantasynews.cbssports.com. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  15. "Buffalo Bisons on Twitter". Twitter. July 24, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  16. Beck, Jason (November 2, 2017). "Tigers add Bosio, complete coaching staff". MLB.com. Retrieved November 2, 2017.
  17. Evan Woodbery (September 30, 2019). "Tigers' coaching staff will return with new roles but same faces in 2020". MLive.com. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  18. Beck, Jason (November 7, 2020). "Tigers add bench, hitting, 3B coaches". MLB.com. Retrieved November 7, 2020.
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