Professional career
New York Yankees (1987–1995)
Velarde became the Yankees utility player in 1990, [5] [6] playing second base,shortstop,third base and left field. [7] Becoming the most shuffled player on the Yankee roster appeared to have a negative effect on Velarde's offense,as he batted .210 in 95 games. [7] [8] In spring training of 1991,he competed with Mike Blowers and Jim Leyritz for the position of third base, [7] where he started in the May 1 game against the Oakland Athletics in which Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock's all-time stolen base record. [9] In 1992,he established himself as the everyday shortstop for the organization. [10] However,he was always considered a utility player [10] and subsequently reverted to the role,his versatility being cited as his main asset in contrast to his unreliable defense and lack of slugging prowess. [5] Despite this,Velarde ended up batting .301 and .279 in 1993 and strike-shortened 1994 seasons,respectively. [8]
In 1993,Velarde started games at shortstop,third base,left field and center field and in the following season,he became the second-longest tenured Yankee player behind team captain Don Mattingly. [3] He became a free agent at the end of the season for the first time in his career and re-signed with the Yankees for a one-year,$350,000 contract plus incentives,even though he was given a higher offer by other teams. [11] Velarde's willingness to play in any position and his loyalty to the team prompted his manager,Buck Showalter,to call him "the epitome of a team player." [11] In 1995,his final season with the Yankees,Velarde spent most of his time playing second base and though his batting average during the regular season was .278,he batted a disappointing .176 during the postseason. [5] He again became a free agent at the end of the season.
Remainder of career (1996–2002)
Though Velarde was keen to remain with the Yankees (the only team he had played for up to this point),they turned down his request for a three-year contract. He reluctantly departed and signed a three-year,$2.45 million contract with the California Angels. [11] He played only one game in 1997,as he was forced to miss the entire season due to injury. [8] After more than three seasons with the Angels,Velarde was traded to the Oakland Athletics in the middle of the 1999 season. That year,he finished fourth in the American League in hits (200) and second in assists (493),while his season totals in batting average (.317),runs (105),hits,triples (7),home runs (16),runs batted in (76),stolen bases (24) and on-base percentage (.390) are all personal bests. [8] He also became the sixth player in Major League history to amass 200 hits in a single season while playing for two different teams,and the first since Willie Montañez in 1976. [12] [13]
In his second season with the Athletics,Velarde turned an unassisted triple play against the Yankees,his former team,on May 29 in the bottom of the 6th inning. Velarde caught a line drive off of the bat of Shane Spencer,tagged Jorge Posada coming from first base,and touched second base to put out Tino Martinez. [14] [15] It was the eleventh time that such a play had been executed [1] and Velarde became only the third second baseman to accomplish the feat [16] [14] Velarde rejoined the Yankees in the middle of the 2001 season after a short stint with the Texas Rangers. [17] He acknowledged that he had made a mistake when he departed the Yankees in 1995 in order to become an everyday player [13] [18] and vowed to "redeem the part of the career [he] missed." [19] He ended up appearing in the 2001 World Series,where the Yankees lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games. [20] Though he played the majority of his career with the Yankees,Velarde never won a World Series ring with the team. This was partially due to bad timing;the Yankees won the World Series the year after Velarde left [18] [19] and lost the World Series the season he returned,while winning four championships while he was away. [18] [19] [21]
Velarde rejoined the Oakland Athletics for the 2002 season [5] [22] before retiring. [23]
Career statistics
In 1,273 games over 16 seasons,Velarde posted a .276 batting average (1171-for-4244) with 633 runs,214 doubles,23 triples,100 home runs,445 RBI,78 stolen bases,463 bases on balls,.352 on-base percentage and .408 slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .970 fielding percentage playing primarily at second and third base and shortstop. He also has played at first base and all three outfield positions. In 18 postseason games,he hit .235 (12-for-51) with 6 runs,2 doubles,5 RBI,and 9 walks. [8]
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