José Cruz, Jr.
| José Cruz Jr. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Outfielder | |||
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Born: April 19, 1974 Arroyo, Puerto Rico |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 31, 1997, for the Seattle Mariners | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| June 5, 2008, for the Houston Astros | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .247 | ||
| Home runs | 204 | ||
| Runs batted in | 624 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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José Luis Cruz Jr. (born April 19, 1974 in Arroyo, Puerto Rico), is a retired Major League Baseball outfielder. Over his nine-year playing career, Cruz played for nine different teams. Standing 6'0" tall and weighing 210 pounds, Cruz was a right-handed switch hitter. He is the son of former major league outfielder and Houston Astros first base coach José Cruz, and the nephew of former big leaguers Héctor and Tommy Cruz.
Cruz grew up in Bellaire, Texas and attended Bellaire High School, where he played baseball.
Cruz attended Rice University from 1992 to 1995 and was a member of Team USA in 1994, and was also a three time All-American while at Rice, setting virtually all possible offensive records.
Cruz was a first round pick, 3rd overall, for the Seattle Mariners in the 1995 amateur draft and began his major league career on May 31, 1997. His days in Seattle were short as he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Paul Spoljaric and Mike Timlin on July 31, 1997. He holds the distinction of having the most home runs in the first season of a career while playing for two or more clubs. He stayed in Toronto until 2003 and twice hit at least 30 home runs with the Blue Jays. One of those was in 2001, when he also stole 32 bases to become one of three players to record 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases during that season (Bobby Abreu and Vladimir Guerrero were the others). He was signed as a free agent by the San Francisco Giants on January 28, 2003. In San Francisco, he won a Gold Glove and broke Willie Mays' franchise single-season record for outfield assists with 19. He was later acquired as a free agent by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2004. In 2005, Cruz Jr. played for three teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox and finally the Los Angeles Dodgers. Although injured most of the year, Cruz ended the season on a tear, hitting .301 with six homers as a Dodger.
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