Daniel Pinero

Daniel Pinero

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 210 lb.
• School University of Virginia
• High School Humberside Collegiate Institute

• Born May 2, 1994 in Toronto, ON Canada

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Biographical Information

Daniel Pinero has played as high as AAA and has been on Team Canada.

Pinero was the All-Star first baseman for Canada in the 2011 Americas Qualifier for the 2012 U-18 Baseball World Cup; Brett Siddall was Canada's only other All-Star. In the 2012 U-18 Baseball World Cup, he hit .308/.400/.385 while playing every infield spot except 2B for the Silver Medalists. He also played basketball in high school, averaging 20.1 points per game as a point guard. The Houston Astros took him in the 20th round of the 2013 amateur draft, but he opted for college.

He hit .261/.372/.286 with 36 walks and 39 runs in 68 games as a freshman at Virginia, starting at short. The last freshman to start the opener at short for Virginia was Mark Reynolds, 11 years prior. He improved to .308/.409/.419 with 60 runs as a sophomore, fifth in the Atlantic Coast Conference in runs. Virginia became the first ACC team to win a College World Series since 1955; Pinero was named the All-Star shortstop for the 2015 College World Series. The Detroit Tigers selected him in the 36th round of the 2015 amateur draft, 3 picks after James Marvel, but he again didn't sign.

Daniel had a rough summer for the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod League (.202/.283/.225). Returning to Virginia, the junior batted .332/.434/.476 with 38 walks and 48 runs in 58 games. He was the All-Star shortstop in the 2016 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. He finished 6th in school history with 115 walks. The Tigers took him again, in the 9th round of the 2016 amateur draft; he was the second straight Canadian they took, following Jacob Robson. The scout was Oneri Fleita.

He split his first pro summer between the Connecticut Tigers (.261/.371/.317, 24 BB in 43 G) and GCL Tigers West (.333/.448/.667, 6 R, 6 RBI in 7 G). He was with Canada for the 2017 World Baseball Classic but statistics are unavailable as of 5/25/21 because the idiots at MLB erased the stats from the World Baseball Classic site in early 2020. He batted .289/.377/.398 with 26 doubles for the '17 West Michigan Whitecaps, mostly playing short but also third and first. He was third in the Midwest League in OBP, behind Fernando Tatis Jr. and Marcus Wilson. Among Tigers farmhands, only Robson had a better OBP. He was named West Michigan's Player of the Year.

The Toronto native spent 2018 with the Lakeland Flying Tigers; he put up a .263/.352/.396 batting line with 26 doubles and 54 walks, while mostly playing third. He tied for 4th in the Florida State League in doubles, was 5th in walks (between Taylor Trammell and Arquimedes Gamboa), 6th in runs (66, between Rodrigo Orozco Jr. and Robbie Tenerowicz) and 10th in OBP. He was 6th in the Detroit chain in runs (between Isaac Paredes and Will Maddox), tied Dawel Lugo for 5th in two-baggers and 7th in walks (between Cam Gibson and Daz Cameron). He was named Lakeland's Player of the Year. He hit .216/.348/.243 for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League,

Playing for Canada in the 2019 Pan American Games Qualifier, he hit .333/.389/.467 with five runs and four RBI in four games, including two runs in the third-place game loss to Nicaragua (in which he made three errors). His 17 assists were second in the event, four behind Vladimir Frías and he tied Frías and Milton Ramos for the most errors. He was named the event's All-Star shortstop; Kellin Deglan was the only other Canadian on the All-Star team. Canada qualified for the 2019 Pan American Games (where they won Silver, though Pinero was not with them for the Games themselves).

He hit 15 homers in 2019 between the Toledo Mud Hens (.231/.364/.451 in 28 G) and Erie SeaWolves (.237/.317/.407 in 88 G), now in a utility role. He tied Frank Schwindel for 4th in the Tigers chain in dingers. The 2020 minor league season was canceled due to COVID-19. He began 2021 slowly with Toledo (.200/.342/.433 in 11 G) then was with Canada for the 2021 Americas Olympic Qualifier. Starting at short, he was 1 for 12 heading into the finale. With Canada needing to beat the Dominican national team for a spot in the Final Olympic Qualifier, he certainly did his share - a two-run homer in the first off Raúl Valdés to open the scoring, another homer in the 6th to tie it at four and a RBI single off Jumbo Díaz to score Eric Wood in the 8th for a 5-4 lead, but Canada could not hold on. He led Canada in homers in the qualifier (tied for 4th in the event) and tied Robson for the team lead in RBI (tied for 7th in the event).