Cristian Antonio Guzmán (born March 21, 1978) is a Dominican former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

(MLB) for the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area ...

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadi ...

, and Texas Rangers.

Professional career

Minnesota Twins

Guzmán was acquired by the

in from the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...

organization as part of the Chuck Knoblauch trade. In , Guzmán was named to the AL All-Star team and posted career bests with 10

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run is ...

s and a .302

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average i ...

. He was a key part of the Twins teams that won three consecutive American League Central titles from –. While a Twin, he led the American League in triples in (20), 2001 (14) and (14). His total of 20 in 2000 was only the tenth time a player had reached that number in the last 70 years.

Washington Nationals

After becoming a free agent, Guzmán signed a $16.8 million, four-year contract with the

for the season but then proceeded to have the worst year of his career. As the full-time shortstop, he was batting .192 at the end of August, but rallied in September, hitting .325, which helped bring his average up to .219. Three days after the disastrous 2005 season, Guzmán had eye surgery, which he credited as a prime reason for his resurgence in the following years. Guzmán was sidelined for the entire campaign with a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery, but returned in as the Nationals' starting shortstop following the trade of second baseman José Vidro to the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

and the move of Felipe López to second base. However, he injured his

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrup ...

on the first day of the regular season. He was on the

disabled list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

until May 7, 2007. Batting leadoff, he was hitting .329 (second on the team), and despite missing almost half of the season through late June, was third in the league with six triples. On June 24, however, Guzmán was injured while tagging out a would-be base-stealer, and had surgery the next day to repair a torn thumb ligament, sidelining him for the rest of the 2007 season. On March 30, , Guzmán got the first hit in the history of Nationals Park, a broken bat single to

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical th ...

off

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in B ...

starter Tim Hudson. He followed with the first run in the history of the park, after an

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by Nick Johnson. He made the NL All-Star team as the Nationals' lone representative in 2008. He ended up playing

third base A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

in the

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, and made some crucial fielding plays at that position, even though he had previously only played shortstop as a major leaguer. On August 28, 2008, Guzmán hit for the cycle against the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brookly ...

; only the second cycle in Nationals history. Guzman signed a two-year contract extension to stay with the Nats. He finished the 2008 season 4th the league in hits and batting average. By the All-Star break in 2009, he was fourth among active players for triples. He had the lowest fielding percentage of any starting major league shortstop in 2009 (.962).

Texas Rangers

On July 31, 2010, the Texas Rangers acquired Guzmán from the Nationals for two minor leaguers, Tanner Roark and Ryan Tatusko. Guzman played his first game as a Ranger on August 1 against the Angels in L.A. and went 0–3 with a walk.

2011

Although Guzmán received spring training invitations from two teams, he was forced to miss at least the first half of the season to deal with unspecified family issues.

Cleveland Indians

Guzmán signed a minor league contract with the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

on February 21, 2012. After suffering a strained hamstring during spring training, he was released by the Indians on March 28. He now resides in Washington Heights with his wife.

References

External links

: {{DEFAULTSORT:Guzman, Cristian 1978 births Living people American League All-Stars Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States Frisco RoughRiders players Greensboro Bats players Gulf Coast Twins players Gulf Coast Yankees players Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Major League Baseball shortstops Minnesota Twins players National League All-Stars New Britain Rock Cats players Tampa Yankees players Texas Rangers players Washington Nationals players People from Baní