Jose Duarte (minors01)

Jose Armando Duarte

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 165 lb.

• Born March 7, 1985 in Santa Lucia, Miranda Venezuela

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Venezuelan outfielder Jose Duarte had a long career in the minor leagues, and an even longer one in the winter leagues.

After having been signed by the Kansas City Royals as an international amateur free agent, he first played professionally for the DSL Royals in 2004, then moved stateside to play with the AZL Royals in 2005. He hit a solid .309/.388/.466 in 47 games that season and rose to AAA by 2009. In between, he was named an All-Star outfielder in the Carolina League with the Wilmington Blue Rocks in 2007, when he batted .290/.356/.369 in 128 games, with 82 runs scored and 34 stolen bases. His batting average went down when he reached AA with the Northwest Arkansas Naturals in 2008 and 2009, as he hit .250 and .249 those two years, but he got a first taste of AAA with the Omaha Royals of the Pacific Coast League in May of 2009, where he batted .182 in 17 games.

After he started the 2010 season slowly as a back-up with Omaha, batting .213 in 6 games, he was released on April 29th and after a brief stint with the Pittsfield Colonials of the Can-Am Association, signed by the Florida Marlins, who assigned him to the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the South Atlantic League, a huge step down from AAA. Facing much younger and inexperienced competition, he hit very well, with a line of .300/.366/.443 in 74 games, but clearly was no longer considered a prospect by this point. In 2011 he was with the Jupiter Hammerheads of the Florida State League for 100 games, batting .254/.359/.348. On May 24th, he singled in the winning run in the 23rd inning of a marathon 2-1 win over the Clearwater Threshers in a game that fell six innings short of the circuit record for most innings played. In 2012, he returned to AA and AAA, playing for the Jacksonville Suns and New Orleans Zephyrs and batted a combined .234/.342/.312 in 84 games. That concluded his career in Organized Baseball but not his playing career.

Jose had first played in the Venezuelan League during the winter season of 2007-08, with the Leones del Caracas, and would play for the team for the next six winters, until 2013-14. In 2009-10, he hit .260 with 26 runs scored in 43 games for the Caracas team as it reached the 2010 Caribbean Series - he went 1 for 2 with a walk in his only appearance in the tournament. He was 5 for 13 with a walk for the Venezuelan national team in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games, splitting right field with Yonathan Sivira. In 2018-19, after an extended break from the pro game, he returned to the Venezuelan League with a second team, the Tiburones de La Guaira, going 30 for 11 in 6 games. He then played one game for the same team in 2019-20, scoring a run as a pinch-runner.