Michaelangel Trinidad

Michaelangel Gregorio Trinidad

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180-231 lb.

• High School Stella Maris VSBO

• Born August 23, 1988 in Willemstad Curacao

BR minors page

Michaelangel Trinidad originally signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates shortly before his 17th birthday. He hit .261/.400/.399 for the 2006 VSL Pirates, with a Venezuelan Summer League-high 47 walks. His 56 strikeouts were 5th in the league. In 2007, he batted .246/.393/.408 for the VSL Pirates, then missed 2008 with injury.

Trinidad, originally 180 pounds, had gained lots of weight before the 2009 season, when Pirates officials Rene Gayo and Kyle Stark told him to trim down. He lowered his weight to 231 pounds and had a monster year, hitting .318/.412/.604 with 14 home runs and 56 RBI in 58 games for the VSL Pirates. He was 9th in the VSL in average, 4th in OBP, 2nd in slugging, 2nd in homers and 2nd in RBI. He set the Pirates record for home runs by a member of one of the club's Latin American summer affiliates, breaking the mark of 12 shared by Aramis Ramirez and Jose Guillen. Both Ramirez and Guillen were significantly younger than Trinidad when they accomplished their feats, though.

Sources

• 8/9/09 edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• 2009 Pirates Media Guide