Todd Steverson

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Todd Anthony Steverson

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Biographical Information[edit]

The cousin of Ron LeFlore, outfielder Todd Steverson reached the majors in two seasons.

Originally selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the sixth round of the 1989 amateur draft, Steverson opted not to sign and attended Arizona State University instead. He would have to wait until 1992 to be drafted again. He was chosen 25th overall by the Toronto Blue Jays and this time did sign with a bonus of $450,000. He spent three years in the Jays' farm system, showing nothing more than mediocre statistics. He was speedy (he had a career high 23 stolen bases in 1992 while with the St. Catharines Blue Jays) but also struck out a lot (118 K's in 413 at-bats in 1993 with the Dunedin Blue Jays).

Steverson was taken by the Detroit Tigers in the 1994 Rule V Draft, and although he had had a fairly unimpressive minor league career, found himself with the big league club before the end of April 1995. He made his debut on April 28th at the age of 23 against the Seattle Mariners. In his only at-bat of the game, he flew to right against Ron Villone. He homered twice that summer, in back-to-back games no less. He victimized pitcher Eddie Guardado of the Minnesota Twins on June 10th, then pitcher Dave Stevens of the Twins the very next day. The top game of his season may have come on June 15th, though. Playing the New York Yankees, he collected three hits in four at-bats, driving in two runs and scoring once. Interestingly, those were the last hits of his big league career. Overall, he appeared in 30 games for the Tigers that year, collecting 11 hits in 42 at-bats for a .262 batting average, and played in 9 games in the minors, hitting only .107 for the Toledo Mud Hens.

Although Steverson's rookie campaign was short but fairly impressive, the Tigers did not keep him for more than a year. Instead, right before the beginning of the 1996 season, he was traded by Detroit with Cade Gaspar and Sean Bergman to the San Diego Padres for Raul Casanova, Richie Lewis, and Melvin Nieves. He made his final big league appearance on April 3rd of that year against the Chicago Cubs. Pinch hitting for pitcher Joey Hamilton and facing Turk Wendell, he was called out on strikes in his final big league at-bat. He spent the rest of the year with the Las Vegas Stars, clubbing a career-best 12 home runs but hitting just .239. He played two more years in the minors, ending his career after spending 1998 in the St. Louis Cardinals chain.

Perhaps it was the number Steverson wore that caused his career to end so quickly; he wore the traditionally unlucky 13 in both his seasons in the big leagues.

After retiring as a player, Steverson spent five years as a coach in the Cardinals farm system. He joined the Oakland A's organization in 2004 and managed the Stockton Ports in 2005 and 2006. In 2007, he became manager of the Midland Rockhounds, and the next year, he led the Sacramento River Cats to a Pacific Coast League crown. He joined the A's in 2009 as the team's first base coach. After two summers on their staff, he returned to Sacramento as the team's hitting coach in 2011.

In 2014, Steverson was appointed hitting coach of the Chicago White Sox, replacing Jeff Manto. He stayed until the end of the 2019 season. He was scheduled to be the hitting coach of the Las Vegas Aviators in 2020 before the season was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Year-By-Year Minor League Managerial Record[edit]

Year Team League Record Finish Organization Playoffs
2005 Stockton Ports California League 78-62 2nd Oakland Athletics Lost in 1st round
2006 Stockton Ports California League 69-71 6th Oakland Athletics Lost in 1st round
2007 Midland RockHounds Texas League 67-70 5th Oakland Athletics
2008 Sacramento RiverCats Pacific Coast League 83-61 3rd Oakland Athletics League Champs

Related Sites[edit]

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