Former major league infielder Mario Guerrero has passed away, his family told reporters over the weekend (relayed by Enrique Rojas of ESPN). He was 73 years old.
Guerrero, a native of the Dominican Republic, started his professional career when he signed with the Yankees in 1968. The right-handed hitting infielder spent four seasons in the New York farm system, playing his way to Triple-A. Midway through the 1972 campaign, he was dealt to the Red Sox as a player to be named later in the deal that saw New York acquire future Cy Young winner Sparky Lyle.
Within one season, Guerrero made his MLB debut in Boston. A light-hitting middle infielder, he played in 66 games with the Sox as a rookie. Guerrero was entrusted with the Opening Day start at shortstop the following season, ultimately appearing in 93 games and hitting .246/.282/.282.
Going into the 1975 campaign, Boston traded Guerrero to the Cardinals for a player to be named later. He spent a season-plus bouncing on and off the St. Louis roster before being traded again in May ’76 — this time to the Angels for a pair of players who never reached the majors. Guerrero played in just over half of California’s games the next two seasons, hitting .283/.298/.342 over 540 trips to the plate.
Guerrero signed with the Giants over the 1977-78 offseason. Before he could play a game, they moved him to the A’s as a player to be named later in the trade that sent Vida Blue to San Francisco a month prior. Guerrero got Opening Day nods at shortstop in Oakland in two of the next three seasons. He had arguably the best year of his career in 1978, hitting .275/.302/.345 in a personal-high 143 games.
His MLB career came to a close when he was released by the Mariners going into the 1981 campaign. Guerrero played in parts of eight big league seasons, logging a little more than 2400 plate appearances across 697 contests. He hit .257/.285/.312 while playing for four different franchises. Guerrero never posted particularly strong offensive numbers, but clubs trusted him enough as a defender to give him nearly 4600 innings of shortstop work in the big leagues.
MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, loved ones, friends and former teammates.
Rest In Peace, Mario. 🙁
RIP Mario
He achieved the dream. It was modest but still a career most anyone would want.
Well said.
This is a baseball forum and I’m not writing a eulogy:
Mario Guerrero was an offensive minded SS. He put the ball in play and didn’t strike out much but, he couldn’t be walked either. He was slow on the basepaths and he wasn’t very reliable in the field.
Guerrero was not a good fit for Billy Ball.
Billy Martin used defense first middle IF. He pinch hit for them at a strategic point then replaced them with another defense first IF. Billy also used his IFs as pinch runners.
HOF quality? No but he accomplished his dream of making it to the big leagues in the U.S. Unfortunately for those my age, he’s more remembered as the PTBNL in the Lyle – Cater deal, which is not fair to him. Prayers to his family.
Being in the Red Sox organization may have been the best thing that could have happened to Lyle as it was with the Red Sox he got to meet one of his biggest baseball mentors, Ted Williams. Williams is one of the greatest players of all time, in addition to being one of the sharpest minds the game has ever seen. It was Williams who once called Lyle over after a game to offer some advice and wisdom. In the conversation, he told Lyle that if he developed a slider, he would make the big leagues. While this proved to be true, the problem was Lyle did not know how to throw it, and Williams did not show him how to either.
For a few weeks, Lyle hoped to figure out the proper grip and technique to develop the pitch. While sleeping in a garage he was renting, Lyle was up late at night and could not sleep.
“It was about three in the morning,” Lyle explained. “I slept with a baseball in my bed, and I couldn’t sleep that night. I was practicing different grips hoping to discover a slider. That night, I just figured it out and then couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to go to the ballpark the next day. I told my catcher that morning at practice I was going to throw a slider, and he replied back that I did not have a slider. I threw it, and it broke so far that the catcher missed the ball, and it hit him in the foot.”
Thus was born the “back foot slider.”
Just kidding.
Going from my ever fading memory, the 1970s RedSox and the Giants ruined their teams by making countless poor trades.
In his best season cited in the article, he scored only 27 runs while hitting .275 with a little over 500 official at bats. He had 139 hits that season with 15 walks and 35 strikeouts. To me, these odd stats stand out. RIP Mario.
That A’s team had no offense whatsoever. One guy scored more than 50 runs. Same guy was the only guy to drive in over 50 runs. Mitchell Paige, whose best year was the year before.
RIP
Bridge SS between Luis Aparicio and Rick Burleson.
RIP.
I liked Mario and watched him as a teen on my Oakland A’s . I own two of his game used bats . Rest in peace dude .
RIP
Being a PTBNL two different times for a future Cy Young and one already as well as an MVP is some kind of an accomplishment…It’s life, i’m 62 now and most of the players i grew up watching play are leaving this life, one warm hug for his family!!
The interesting thing about Guerrero is for a player who couldn’t really field and wasn’t much of a hitter he still managed to draw 23 starts as a DH over his two seasons with the Angels during the (still) early years of the DH
RIP Mario Guerrero.
R.I.P.
Nice article, thanks for reminding me that he was the player to be named later in the Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater trade.
RIP Mario! Thanks for living the dream.
He did it the right way.
He did not cheat the game .
Hit a lot of line- drives in Heaven , Mario.