Angel Salazar

Argenis Antonio Salazar Yepez

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 173 lb.

• Debut August 10, 1983
• Final Game October 1, 1988
• Born November 4, 1961 in Anaco, Anzoategui, Venezuela

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Biographical Information

Angel Salazar, also known as Argenis Salazar, came up as a shortstop with the Montreal Expos in 1983. He had been signed by the Expos as an amateur free agent in 1980 and started playing in their organization with the Calgary Expos that year. By age 21, he was playing in AAA with the Wichita Aeros in 1983 and put up a .302 batting average. He was considered a budding star, and was handed the Expos' starting job at the beginning of the 1984 season. However, it was the result of a poor understanding of his batting line: Wichita was a hitter's paradise, and his batting average was completely empty, with no power or walks; his batting results at other levels were not particularly good either. Thus, he completely failed to hit with the Expos, putting up a batting line of .155/.178/.201 in 80 games. Good for an OPS+ of only 9, it was one of the worst lines by a batter getting substantial playing time of the second half of the 20th century. Since he was a decent but not exceptional fielder, that season wore out his welcome in the Expos' organization. He was then selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1985 Free agent compensation draft, but failed to impress during spring training in 1985 and was traded to the New York Mets for Jose Oquendo.

After a season playing in AAA for the Mets, he was sent to the Kansas City Royals in return for pitching prospect Tony Ferreira just before the 1986 season. Buddy Biancalana was the starting shortstop, after having held the job through the 1985 postseason, but Salazar quickly eclipsed him. He hit .245 in 117 games, but was steady enough in the field to keep the job for another season. In 1987, he fell to .205 in 116 games and the Royals decided to look elsewhere for their shortstop. He had however hit the only two homers of his big league career that year. Salazar was moved to the Cincinnati Reds along with P Danny Jackson in return for Ted Power and Kurt Stillwell. He again failed to make it out of spring training in 1988, but after being released, he was picked up by the Chicago Cubs. He spent the 1988 season in Chicago, as a sparely-used back-up to shortstop Shawon Dunston; in 34 games, he hit a career-high .250. He was out of baseball in 1989, then tried a comeback with the Expos organization in 1990, but hit only .208 in 15 games for Indianapolis. His last minor league season was with the unaffiliated Salinas Spurs of the California League in 1991, where he hit .254 in 22 games.

He was the 2006 Manager for the DSL Braves in the Dominican Summer League