Edgar Rentería

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Édgar Rentería
San Francisco Giants — No. 16
Shortstop
Born: August 7, 1975 (1975-08-07) (age 34) Barranquilla, Colombia
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
May 10, 1996 for the Florida Marlins
Career statistics (through November 1 , 2009)
Batting average	.288
Home runs	132
Runs batted in	865
Stolen bases	287
Hits	2,185
Teams
Florida Marlins (1996–1998) St. Louis Cardinals (1999–2004) Boston Red Sox (2005) Atlanta Braves (2006–2007) Detroit Tigers (2008) San Francisco Giants (2009–present)
Career highlights and awards
World Series Champion (1997) 3x Silver Slugger Award winner (2000, 2002, 2003) 2x Gold Glove Award winner (2002, 2003) 5x All-Star selection (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006)

Rentería with the Braves in June 2007.

Edgar Enrique Rentería (Spanish pronunciation: [renteˈɾia]; born August 7, 1975, in Barranquilla, Colombia) is a Major League Baseball shortstop for the San Francisco Giants. He is the first Colombian to play in the World Series.

Playing career

Marlins and Cardinals

Signed by the Florida Marlins as a non-amateur free agent in 1992, Rentería made his debut in the 1996 season. He finished second behind Dodgers outfielder Todd Hollandsworth in National League Rookie of the Year balloting, after batting .309 with 68 runs scored and 16 stolen bases in 106 games.

Rentería is well remembered for his 11th inning two-out RBI single in Game Seven of the 1997 World Series to give Florida a 3-2 triumph over the Cleveland Indians. He was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals before the 1999 season.

While with the Cardinals, Renteria ended the Curse of the Bambino, grounding into the last out of the 2004 World Series. Fox Sports commentator Joe Buck called Renteria's grounder saying:

Boston Red Sox

Rentería signed a four year $40 million deal with the Boston Red Sox in December 2004.^[1].

The 2005 season, playing for the Boston Red Sox, was a disappointing one for Rentería. Replacing fellow Colombian and fan favorite Orlando Cabrera at shortstop, who had jump started the World Series winning team the year before, and Nomar Garciaparra before him, was not an easy job. Rentería committed a major league-leading and career high 30 errors in 2005, blaming the poor conditions of the field despite the fact half his errors were away from Fenway Park.. He also pointed to an injury when he "pulled [his] lower back and leg" [1] Although much maligned for his defensive problems in 2005, Rentería scored 100 runs in a season for the first time in his career. In the 2005 ALDS, he was the last out in the American League Division Series for the Red Sox when the Chicago White Sox defeated Boston and went on to win the World Series. Rentería was traded by Theo Epstein after the 2005 season to the Atlanta Braves for prospect Andy Marte. Healthy and seemingly more relaxed in 2006, Rentería has returned to the form that made him such a valuable shortstop for many years in the National League. Due to his poor play, Renteria also became fodder for the local sports shows. WEEI (the Boston Sports Radio Station) nicknamed him "Rente-error and Rent-A-Wreck."

Atlanta Braves: A return to form

After his trade to the Braves, Renteria proved his year with the Red Sox was indeed a fluke. In 2006, Renteria batted .293 with 14 homers and 70 RBI. In the same year he only committed 13 errors, as opposed to 30 in his year with Boston. He quickly became an integral key to the Atlanta Braves offensive attack, hitting ahead of Chipper Jones.

In 2007, Renteria saw an even greater increase in production and was on pace to collect well over 200 hits. However, on August 2, Renteria sprained his ankle while fielding a groundball and was placed in the 15-day DL. This was his first trip to the DL in his career and effectively eliminated his chances of obtaining 200 hits in a season for the first time in his career. Renteria was activated on August 22 and was put in the lineup but left the game after tweaking the ankle after the first pitch he saw. He subsequently returned to the disabled list a day later. He was activated on September 7 and played a day later going 2-for-4. He finished batting .332 (4th in the NL and a new career-high) with 12 homers.

For reasons of salary and the emergence of Braves young shortstop Yunel Escobar, Renteria became expendable to the Braves. On October 29, 2007 Renteria was traded to the Detroit Tigers for pitching prospect Jair Jurrjens and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez.

Detroit Tigers

Rentería batting for the Detroit Tigers on March 31, 2008.

The 2008 season for the Detroit Tigers looked extremely promising, with many magazine experts predicting that the Tigers would make it to the World Series. But Renteria had another slow start in the American League and continued to struggle all season, both offensively and defensively. He finished the season a major disappointment for the Tigers, who announced that they would not pick up his $12 million dollar option for the 2009 season, but still left the door open for him to accept a smaller deal to re-sign.^[2] In the end the Tigers declined to offer arbitration, unwilling to risk the possibility of Rentería returning for a one-year $9 million deal.^[3]

San Francisco Giants

On December 4, 2008, Rentería signed a two-year deal with the San Francisco Giants^[4] worth 18.5 million with an option for 2011. ^[5]

In 2009 he had the lowest range factor of all starting major league shortstops (3.86).^[6]

Accomplishments

• Hit a two-out walk-off single in the bottom of the eleventh of Game 7 to win the 1997 World Series for the Florida Marlins. During the 1997 regular season, he drove in walk-off runs five times in extra innings.
• Five-time All-Star (1998, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006)
• Two-time Gold Glove Award winner (2002–03)
• Three-Time Silver Slugger Award winner for shortstop (2000, 2002–03)
• Had a 24 game hitting streak spanning the last game of 2005 and his first 23 games of 2006. His 23 game single season streak was the second longest ever to start a season.
• Renteria is one of only three players to be the last hitter of two World Series, having won the 1997 Series with a walk-off RBI single and ended the 2004 World Series with a groundout to the pitcher. Boss Schmidt of the Detroit Tigers ended the 1907 World Series by popping up and the 1908 World Series by grounding out. Goose Goslin struck out to end the 1925 World Series and won the 1935 World Series with a walk-off RBI single.
• In addition to being the last hitter of two World Series, Edgar also has completed a rare feat-to make the consecutive last and first at bats of two seasons. At the end of the 2004 World Series, with the St.Louis Cardinals, Renteria made the final at-bat with a groundout. Also, he made the first at bat of the 2005 season, in the season opening game, with the Boston Red Sox. *Renteria has also made the last out of the Red Sox season two years in a row, in 2004 against the Red Sox in the Worl Series, grounding out to end the series, and then in 2005 he made the last out of the Red Sox season, this time as a member of the Red Sox in the ALDS against the champion White Sox.
• Hit his 2,000th career base hit on June 18, 2008 vs. the San Francisco Giants.
• Hit a Grand Slam against the Colorado Rockies on August 30, 2009.

Renteria's league and GBL affiliation

Edgar and his brother Edinson Renteria created the Colombian Professional Baseball League in 2003. In 2009, they signed an agreement with the Golden Baseball League's Yuma Scorpions for two years to provide development for the Colombia League.

See also

• NL Gold Glove winners at shortstop
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edgar Rentería

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Colombian Professional League "teamrenteria"