Brayan Peña

Peña with the Detroit Tigers in 2013

Kansas City Royals

Catcher

Born: January 7, 1982 (age 35)
Havana, Cuba

Bats: Switch

Throws: Right

MLB debut

May 23, 2005, for the Atlanta Braves

MLB statistics
(through 2016 season)

Batting average

.259

Home runs

Runs batted in

164

Teams

Brayan Eduardo Peña (born January 7, 1982) is a Cuban-American professional baseball catcher in the Kansas City Royals organization. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.

Peña was born and raised in Havana, Cuba and was a member of the Cuban National 18-and-under team. He graduated from Espa Julio Trigo. He grew up with former teammate and current Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Infielder, Yunel Escobar.

Peña left Cuba for the United States in 1999.

Peña was called up to the big leagues early in the 2005 season because of an injury to Eddie Pérez. He made his debut on May 23, 2005 in an 8-6 home win over the New York Mets. Starting at catcher and batting seventh, Peña went 1-4 and scored a run. His first hit was a second-inning single off Kazuhisa Ishii. At the big-league level for the year, in 18 games he batted .179 with four runs batted in.

For the next three seasons, 2006-2008, he saw part-time action for the Braves, playing in 23, 16 and 14 games, respectively, and totaling 22 hits including two home runs. On May 28, 2006, he hit his first Major League home run, a seventh-inning solo shot off Roberto Novoa in a 13-12 Braves win.

On May 23, 2008, the Braves designated Peña for assignment.

On May 30, 2008, Peña was claimed off waivers by the Kansas City Royals. However, he was designated for assignment the next day, and did not appear in a game. He was promoted from the Royals' AAA affiliate on May 31, 2009. He then saw his most big-league playing time to date, appearing in 64 games and batting .273 with six home runs and 18 RBIs.

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