Vicente Campos

José Vicente Campos Carnota

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 3", Weight 230 lb.

• Debut August 27, 2016
• Final Game August 27, 2016

• Born July 27, 1992 in La Guaira, Vargas Venezuela

BR page

Biographical Information

Pitcher Vicente Campos pitched one game in the major leagues. He is a cousin of Alcides Escobar, Edwin Escobar, Elvis Escobar and Kelvim Escobar and a nephew of Jose Escobar.

Vicente was signed by the Seattle Mariners as a 16-year-old in his native Venezuela (the scouts were Emilio Carrasquel and Patrick Guerrero) and began playing with the VSL Mariners in 2009. He was 1-3, 5.73 in 13 games in his first season, then improved to 8-2, 3.16 as a full-time starter in 2010. In 57 innings, he walked 19 batters and struck out 59. In 2011, he made the move to the United States, pitching for the Everett AquaSox of the Northwest League. He continued to improve, as in 14 games as a starting pitcher, he gave up only 66 hits in 81 1/3 innings, with only 13 walks against 83 strikeouts. While his record was only 5-5, his ERA was a sparkling 2.32. Those results caught the eyes of scouts for the New Yankees, who acquired Campos on January 13, 2012, along with pitcher Michael Pineda, in return for two of the Yanks' top prospects, catcher/designated hitter Jesus Montero and pitcher Hector Noesi. The trade was only finalized on January 23rd, as all four players needed to pass physical exams.

He suffered a first setback in 2012 as, after only 5 starts for the Charleston RiverDogs of the South Atlantic League (during which he had gone 3-0), he was placed on the disabled list for the rest of the season. In 2013, he made 26 appearances for Charleston, including 19 starts, but pitched only 87 innings as the Yankees were being careful with him. He was 4-2, 3.41 that year. He then had another setback, undergoing Tommy John surgery and missing all of 2014. He started back in the lowest levels of the Yankees organization in 2015, with the GCL Yankees 1. He eventually moved up to the Tampa Yankees of the Florida State League, but was only 3-7, 7.25 in 11 starts. The former top prospect found his way back in 2016, however, as he went a combined 9-3 in 20 starts between Tampa, the AA Trenton Thunder and the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. On July 31st, he was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks straight-up for reliever Tyler Clippard. The D-backs assigned him to the AA Mobile BayBears, where he was 1-2, 3.60 in 4 starts. Between the four minor league teams at four levels he was an excellent 10-5, 3.26, striking out 120 batters in 141 innings. On August 25th, Arizona called him up.

Vicente made the best of a bad situation in his major league debut on August 27, 2016. He entered a game against the Cincinnati Reds with his team down 9-0 after 2 innings following a bad start by Zack Godley. He managed to give the bullpen a big hand in hanging on for 5 2/3 innings, allowing only 4 hits, although two of them were homers, by Zack Cozart and Adam Duvall, resulting in 3 runs, one of them unearned. The Diamondbacks lost the game badly, 13-0, but he had done a good job preventing what could have been a debacle. This would be his only big league appearance. He was waived after the season and claimed by the Los Angeles Angels, kicking around their system before his release in May 2018, catching on briefly in the Pittsburgh Pirates chain in 2019.

Related Sites

• Vicente Campos on mlb.com
• BR Minors page