Rodrigo Merón

Rodrigo Merón

• Born March 1, 1961

Biographical Information

Rodrigo Merón was a long-time player in Panama's amateur leagues and later managed there. He also played and managed for the Panamanian national team.

Merón began his career in 1980 with Panama Metro and would remain with them through 1998. In 1983, he led the league with 26 runs. In the 1984 Amateur World Series, he hit .234/.275/.255 with 7 RBI in 12 games while fielding .971 as Panama's starting second baseman. He tied Rodrigo Orozco Sr. for second on the team in RBI. In 1988, he tied Tito Espino for the league lead in average (.457), tied for the lead with 8 doubles and led with 32 hits for his career year. He led in runs (11) and tied for the most triples (2) in 1989.

During the 1994 Baseball World Cup, he batted .357/.379/.464 with four runs in seven games and handled 32 chances error-free at 2B, again starting there for Panama. He tied for second on the team in runs, one behind Orozco. He played for Panama in the 1995 Pan American Games. He helped Panama win Gold at the 1997 Central American Games, their first baseball Gold at a Central American Games. In the 1998 Baseball World Cup, the 37-year-old backed up Erick González and was 0 for 3 while handling six chances perfectly at second. He was Panama's oldest position player.

For his career in Panama (through March 2015), he was among the leaders in career games played (531, 7th), runs (393, 5th), hits (628, 6th), triples (22, 5th) and steals (55, tied for 6th with Reynaldo Sharpe).

He was appointed Panama's manager prior to the 2017 Bolivarian Games and guided them to a Silver Medal, then won another Silver in the 2017 Central American Games. Both times, they lost out the Gold to the host nation (Colombia and Nicaragua respectively).