José Tena

Note: This page is for infielder José Tena who made his major league debut in 2023; for 1980s infielder Paulino Jose Tena, click here.

José Luis Tena

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 195 lb.

• Debut August 5, 2023

• Born March 20, 2001 in San Cristobal, San Cristobal D.R.

BR page

Biographical Information

Infielder José Tena made his major league debut for the Cleveland Guardians under unusual circumstances on August 5, 2023. He came in in the 6th inning as a pinch-runner for José Ramírez at second base, after Ramírez had been ejected from a game for the first time of his career. Ramírez had hit a double and when he slid head-first into second base, between SS Tim Anderson's legs, he was tagged particularly hard even though he was safe. When he got up, he began arguing with the Chicago White Sox player, who had raised the Guardians' anger with other gestures they considered unsportsmanlike earlier in the series, and the two exchanged punches. This led to a massive bench-clearing brawl that took fifteen minutes to clear up, and by the time the dust had settled, Ramírez and Anderson, as well as both managers and two other persons, had been tossed for their role in the fracas. That was how Tena came into the game, and he then came in to score on a single by Kole Calhoun. He remained in the game at shortstop, going 0 for 2 in the 7-4 win. He appeared in 18 games for Cleveland that season, hitting .226 with no homers and 3 RBIs and appearing at all three infield positions.

Tena was signed by what were then the Cleveland Indians on July 2, 2017 as an international amateur free agent and played in their system from 2018 until 2024. He had to sit out the 2020 season when the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, but bounced back to hit .281 in 107 games for the Lake County Captains in 2021. He continued to progress quickly after that, reaching AAA for the first time at the end of the 2022 season, and again in 2023 prior to his major league debut, although he spent most of those two seasons in AA with the Akron RubberDucks. In 2024, however, he began the season with the Columbus Clippers and played every day for the team except for a brief three-game call-up to Cleveland at the end of June during which he went 0 for 4. In 90 games for the Clippers, he hit .298, with 17 homers and 63 RBIs, but his prospects within the organization dimmed significantly when the Guardians selected IF Travis Bazzana with the first overall pick of the 2024 amateur draft in mid-July: Bazzana was essentially the same player - only even better. It was therefore not a surprise that he was used as a trading chip at the trading deadline a few weeks later: on July 29th, he was sent to the Washington Nationals along with fellow prospects Alex Clemmey and Rafael Ramirez Jr. in return for OF Lane Thomas.

Related Sites

• José Tena on mlb.com