Brayan Peña

Brayan Eduardo Pena

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 220 lb.

• Debut May 23, 2005
• Final Game September 26, 2016
• Born January 7, 1982 in Havana, Cuba

BR page

Biographical Information

Pena and a member of the Navy in 2005

Brayan Peña was signed by scouts Julian Perez and Rene Francisco for the Atlanta Braves in 2000 after defecting from the Cuban junior national team following a qualifier for the 1999 Pan-American Games. He made his pro debut with the Danville Braves the next summer.

Peña hit .261/.370/.478 for the Águilas Cibaeñas in the 2008 Caribbean Series.

In an improbable twist, the only other Brayan in big league history, pitcher Brayan Villarreal, played at the same time as Peña. Even more unlikely—they were teammates in 2013, and fate so aligned it that Brayan the catcher caught Brayan the pitcher just once, on April 17.

Peña became a manager with the GCL Tigers West in 2018 and Connecticut Tigers in 2019. He was slated to manage the West Michigan Whitecaps in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the minor league season. Peña did manage the Whitecaps in 2021-2023.

In addition to his work with the Detroit Tigers organization, Peña was the bench coach for the Gigantes del Cibao during the 2020/2021 Dominican League season.

Year-By-Year Managerial Record

Year	Team	League	Record	Finish	Organization	Playoffs
2018	GCL Tigers West	Gulf Coast League	37-16	2nd	Detroit Tigers	League Champs
2019	Connecticut Tigers	New York-Penn League	34-42	10th	Detroit Tigers
2021	West Michigan Whitecaps	High-A Central	56-62	7th (t)	Detroit Tigers
2022	West Michigan Whitecaps	Midwest League	72-59	5th	Detroit Tigers
2023	West Michigan Whitecaps	Midwest League	68-62	3rd	Detroit Tigers

Further Reading

• Brayan Peña: "The Window", The Players' Tribune, January 7, 2016. [1]

Related Sites

• Brayan Pena on mlb.com