Álex Claudio

Alexander Claudio

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 6' 3", Weight 160 lb.
• High School Isabel Flores High School
• Debut August 13, 2014

• Born January 31, 1992 in San Juan, P.R.

BR page

Biographical Information

Rail-thin pitcher Alex Claudio was a 27th round draft choice by the Texas Rangers in 2010, out of high school in Puerto Rico. He was the 2019 National League leader in appearances with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Claudio made his major league debut for Texas on August 13, 2014, his fifth season in the Rangers' organization. He had moved around a lot during that time, as Texas was already his fourth stop of 2014. He was used mainly as a reliever during his minor league apprenticeship, although he did start a total of 13 games out of 114 games, most of those starts coming in 2014 before the call up. He was 6-3 with an excellent 1.66 ERA in 27 games when he arrived in the Lone Star State. Claudio set a couple of club marks when he made his debut in the 8th inning of a 10-1 blowout loss to the Tampa Bay Rays: he was the 56th different player used by the team that year and the 34th pitcher. He pitched a perfect inning after arriving late at the ballpark, having only been called up after Yu Darvish was placed on the disabled list earlier that day, and he was expected to be sent down after the game to make way for the next day's starter, Robbie Ross. After his one inning of work, catcher J.P. Arencibia succeeded him on the mound to pitch the 9th in mop-up duty, upping the total number of pitchers used that year to 36 with 6 weeks still left to play. Alex, not J.P., ended up pitching 15 times for the Rangers, with no decisions and a 2.92 ERA in 12 1/3 innings. He had a similar stat line in 2015, when he pitched another 18 games in relief and went 1-1 with an ERA of 2.87 in 15 2/3 innings.

In 2016, Claudio had a longer stint in the majors, getting into 39 games, and he continued to shine. In 51 2/3 innings, his ERA was 2.79 with a K/BB ratio of 34/10 and a 4-1 record. His first full big league season was 2017, when he made 70 appearances, including a start. He had a chance to close some games after Sam Dyson imploded early in the season, and collected 11 saves in addition to a 4-2 record and a personal best 2.50 ERA. Things did not go as well in 2018, as his ERA rose to 4.48 in 66 games, but he still had a 4-2 record and a save, walking just 13 in 68 1/3 innings. Following the season, on December 13th, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers in return for their Competitive Balance Round A pick in the 2019 amateur draft. Though his ERA was 4.06, Alex took the ball a league leading 83 times as a LOOGY, working 64 innings.

He pitched for Puerto Rico in the 2017 WBC. He did not give up a run on 4 hits in 3 1/3 innings of work spread over 4 appearances.

Notable Achievements

• NL Games Pitched Leader (2019)

Further Reading

• T.R. Sullivan: "WBC '17 could prep Claudio for Rangers role: Lefty reliever likely to handle late innings for Puerto Rico", mlb.com, February 12, 2017. [1]

Related Sites

• Alex Claudio on mlb.com
• BR Minors page