Raúl Rivera (minors02)

Raúl D. Rivera

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 185 lb.

• High School Colegio San Vicente De Paul

• Born February 5, 1991 in San Juan P.R.

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Raúl Rivera pitched in the minors and for the Puerto Rican national team.

Rivera was taken by the Houston Astros in the 37th round of the 2009 amateur draft, one round after Tyler Saladino. The scouts were Greg Brown and Joey Sola. He was 0-2 with a 6.60 ERA for the 2009 GCL Astros then allowed four runs in 1/3 of an inning for the Gigantes de Carolina back in Puerto Rico. Returning to the GCL Astros in 2010, he surrendered four runs in 1 2/3 IP, then missed 2011 due to injury. He returned in 2012, again with the GCL Astros, and did much better (2-1, Sv, 2.00). With the Gigantes in the winter, he was 1-0 with a 4.67 ERA.

The right-hander split 2013 between the Greeneville Astros (4-3, 2.14 in 12 G) and GCL Astros (3.09 in 9 G). He had a 2.86 ERA in nine games that winter for Carolina. In 2014, he pitched for the Quad Cities River Bandits (1 R in 4 1/3 IP) and Tri-City ValleyCats (3-0, 3.09). In the winter, he was 1-2 with a 2.97 ERA. Out of the Astros chain, he was 2-1 with a 5.89 ERA in 16 games for the independent Winnipeg Goldeyes. He pitched for Puerto Rico in the 2015 Pan American Games, throwing a scoreless inning against the Dominican national team. In the Bronze Medal game, he got William Saavedra to hit into a double play in the 8th to preserve a 6-3 edge. Things unraveled in the 9th as Urmanis Guerra and Yosvani Alarcón singled, then Yorbis Borroto hit a tying homer and Adolis García took him deep for the game-ending dinger.

He had a fine winter at 2-1, 2.15 for Carolina. In 2016, he pitched for the Sugar Land Skeeters (8 R in 2 2/3 IP) and Joplin Blasters (1-3, 7.20) in a rough summer. The winter was fine with the Gigantes - 2-3, 3 Sv, 2.83. He repeated at 2-3, this time with a 3.50 ERA, the next winter. He was 4-14 with a 4.87 ERA for the Road Warriors. He led the Atlantic League in losses, no surprise for a traveling team (the #2 and #3 pitchers in losses were staffmates). He split 2018-2019 between the Criollos de Caguas (3-0, 1.29 in 4 G) and Indios de Mayagüez (0-2, 10.45 in 3 G). In 2019-2020, he had a 1-2, 3.09 record for Caguas then was 1-0 with a 2.35 ERA for them the next year. He is back with the team for 2021-2022.