Guillermo Quiróz

Guillermo Quiroz
Quiroz playing for the Baltimore Orioles on April 6, 2008.
Seattle Mariners – No. 3
Catcher
Born: November 29, 1981 (1981-11-29) Maracaibo, Venezuela
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 4, 2004 for the Toronto Blue Jays
Career statistics (through 2010 season)
Batting average	.208
Home runs	2
Runs batted in	28
Teams
Toronto Blue Jays (2004–2005) Seattle Mariners (2006) Texas Rangers (2007) Baltimore Orioles (2008) Seattle Mariners (2009–2010)

Guillermo Antonio Quiroz [gee-YARE-mo kee-ROZE] (born November 29, 1981 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball.

Biography

Quiroz was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays as a non-drafted free agent in 1998, before his 17th birthday, with a lucrative $1.5 million signing bonus. He progressed through Toronto's system as the team's number-one catching prospect. In addition, Baseball America rated him as the Blue Jays' third best prospect in their 2004 pre-season rankings, and the 35th best prospect in all of baseball.

Defensively, Quiroz has good skills. In 2003 he threw out 45% of base stealers, and was the starting catcher for the World Team in the 2003 All-Star Futures Game.

Despite his low average in the minors, Quiroz is a patient hitter who receives a significant number of walks and can hit with decent power. He missed the end of the 2003 season with a collapsed lung, and the broken hand he suffered in May 2004, hurt his chances of taking over as the Blue Jays' starting catcher in 2005.

In 2006, the Blue Jays signed catcher Jason Phillips initially as the backup to Gregg Zaun. They later signed Bengie Molina to be their new starter. This placed three catchers ahead of Quiroz on the Blue Jays' depth chart. On March 31, Quiroz was put on waivers by the Blue Jays, but was picked up by the Seattle Mariners on the same day. Quiroz started the seventh game of the 2006 season for the Mariners, but was outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma Rainers eight days later. Quiroz spent the rest of the season between Triple-A Tacoma and the Double-A San Antonio Missions.

Quiroz was signed by the Texas Rangers on December 28, 2006. He spent most of the 2007 season with the Triple-A Oklahoma RedHawks until a September call-up to the Majors. At the end of the 2007 season, the Rangers outrighted Quiroz to the minors, but he refused the assignment and became a free agent

On December 3, 2007, Quiroz signed a one-year major league contract with the Baltimore Orioles. He spent the 2008 season as the backup to catcher Ramón Hernández. On March 20, 2009, the Orioles released Quiroz, "allowing the two Minor League veterans (the other was Scott Chiasson) to try and hook on with another club before the end of spring." according to Orioles.com On April 20, 2009 Quiroz signed a minor league deal with the Mariners. On May 14, 2009, he assigned to West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (AA) from Tacoma Rainiers (AAA). On May 26, 2009, was called up from West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx to the Seattle Mariners.

In 2011, Quiroz signed a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres.

Quiroz signed a minor league contract with the Seattle Mariners in December 2011. He received an invitation to spring training.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Batter's Box (interview)
• Encyclopedia of Baseball Catchers (article)
• Minor League Splits and Situational Stats