Tony Peña | |||
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Kansas City Royals | |||
Pitcher / Shortstop | |||
Born: Santiago, Dominican Republic |
March 23, 1981 |||
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MLB debut | |||
April 13, 2006, for the Atlanta Braves | |||
MLB statistics (through 2009 season) |
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Batting average | .228 | ||
Home runs | 4 | ||
Runs batted in | 66 | ||
Win-Loss | 0-0 | ||
ERA | 0.00 | ||
Strikeouts | 1 | ||
Teams | |||
Medal record | ||
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Representing Dominican Republic | ||
Men's Baseball | ||
Central American and Caribbean Games | ||
2002 San Salvador | Team | |
Intercontinental Cup | ||
2002 Havana | Team |
Tony Francisco Peña (born March 23, 1981 in Santiago, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher in the Kansas City Royals organization. Pena played shortstop until the 2009 season, when he converted to pitching.
Peña is the son of Tony Peña and the brother of Francisco Peña. His uncle, Ramón Peña, pitched for the Detroit Tigers in 1989.
A non-drafted free agent, Peña was signed on July 21, 1999 by the Atlanta Braves. He made his big league debut with Atlanta on April 13, 2006. His first Major League hit came on April 21 at Washington against the Nationals. He appeared in 40 games for the Braves, batting .227 with a home run and three RBIs in 44 at-bats.
On March 23, 2007, Peña was traded to Kansas City for pitching prospect Erik Cordier. In Peña's first game as a Royal, he hit two triples. Peña finished 2007, his first full season, at .267/.284/.356 with two homers and 47 RBIs. He also hit seven triples and stole five bases.
Pena lost his job as a regular starter in the middle of 2008. From June through the end of 2008, Pena mainly entered games as a defensive replacement. Pena made his major league pitching debut on July 21, performing mop-up duty in a 19–4 blowout loss to the Detroit Tigers. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout of Iván Rodríguez. Pena made 75 plate appearances in 46 games through the last four months of the 2008 season and was designated for assignment by the Kansas City Royals on July 16, 2009.
On December 11, 2009, Peña, signed a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants to try to be a pitcher and was placed with the Richmond Flying Squirrels, the Giants' AA team. On January 5, 2011, he signed a minor-league deal with the Boston Red Sox.