Sergio Contreras

Sergio Lydell Contreras Estrella

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5'11", Weight 180 lb.
• High School Amphitheater High School
• Born April 30, 1980 in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora Mexico

BR Minors page

Biographical information

Sergio Contreras played in the minor leagues from 2000 to 2019, mostly in the Mexican League. He is the twin brother of Albino Contreras.

Anaheim system

On June 5, 1999, he was signed by the Anaheim Angels as a nondrafted free agent. His first professional year started out a little bumpy-in 63 games with the Angels of the Dominican Summer League, he hit only .252 with 2 home runs and 33 RBI.

His next season-2000 with the Butte Copper Kings-was a complete opposite of his first. In 45 games, he showed great contact by hitting .399/.467/.601. He managed to hit 3 home runs and drive in 28 runs as well. At one point in his 2000 season, Contreras had scored a run in 13 straight games. He easily outhit his twin brother, who also had a fine season for the team. Sergio did not qualify for the Pioneer League lead in average or he would have led the league.

With the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, he hit .271 with 3 home runs and 37 RBI. His 15 stolen bases showed that he was developing more as a base-stealer than anything else.

In 2002, Contreras played with Rancho Cucamonga again, appearing in 81 games and hitting .271.

2003 was an off-year for Contreras. In 12 games with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, he hit only .176. When he played in Mexico that year, he was used as a bench player. He hit .272 for the Mexico City Red Devils, with 12 steals.

Mexico

After being picked by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 2003 Rule V Draft, Contreras was then loaned to Mexico again and spent his entire 2004 season there.

In 2005, he again spent his entire season in Mexico, hitting .314 with 9 home runs with 54 RBI.

His 2006 season also was in the Mexican League, this time with the Tigres de la Angelopolis. He hit .370 in 2006. In 2007, he batted .300/.388/.376 with 29 steals in 42 tries for the Tigres de Quintana Roo, with whom he played through 2017. He was third in the League in steals behind Demond Smith and Christian Quintero.

Contreras was with the Mexican national team in the 2007 Baseball World Cup and hit .419/.486/.710 with nine runs as one of the top performers on the 7th-place squad.

Sergio hit .305/.362/.397 with only 10 steals in 18 tries for Quintana Roo in 2008. In the 2008 Americas Baseball Cup, he did very well, going 9 for 18 with 2 homers and 7 RBI in 7 games. He tied for 5th in the event in both RBI and homers as Mexico earned a spot in the 2009 Baseball World Cup. In 2009, he hit .346 with 8 home runs and 33 RBI for the Tigers, while in 2010 he hit .323 with 10 home runs and 55 RBI. He batted .347 with 13 home runs and 57 RBI - both career highs - in 2011 and in 2012, he batted .304 with 7 home runs and 31 RBI. He played in 5 games in that year's Caribbean Series, hitting .500 in 10 at-bats. In 2013, he hit .304 home runs with 4 home runs and 41 RBI. In the 2013 Caribbean Series, he played in four games and had a hit in his lone at-bat. In 2014, he hit .317 with 13 home runs and 63 RBI in 98 games. He made the All-Star team each year from 2011 to 2014, save for 2012. He hit .325/.406/.438 with 95 hits in 87 games in 2015 and in 2016, he batted .294/.397/.362 in 94 games. With Quintana Roo in 2017, he hit .283/.344/.345 in 88 games. With the Leones de Yucatan in 2018, the aging ballplayer fell below .250, and in 2019, back with Yucatan, he hit just .217/.308/.217 in 46 at-bats. He did not play in the Mexican League in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Conteras had also spent many years playing in the Mexican Pacific Winter League, mostly with the Yaquis de Obregon. He usually found less success there, often posting middling batting averages.