Backup Catcher
Manny Sanguillen (with Pirates from 1967, 1969-1976, 1978-1980)
.299/.329/.403, 1296 G, 4782 PA, 105 OPS+ (with Pirates)
When it comes to making contact on pitches out of the strike zone, Manny Sanguillen was the Vladimir Guerrero of catchers. He said, “When I started, nobody told me what a strike was, they gave me a bat and I swung at the ball!” He once started a season without taking a walk until his 75th plate appearances.
Despite his reluctance to take a walk, Sanguillen was still an above average hitter. He came close to hitting .300 in his career and had a slugging percentage close to .400. He was also quite durable for a catcher, regularly playing 135 or more games per year. In 1974, he started 147 games behind the plate.
Sanguillen was at his best in the early 70s, when the Pirates made the playoffs three years in a row from 1970 to 1972. His best year was the 1971 world championship year, when he hit .319/.345/.426 and made the all-star team for the first time. He was also terrific in the World Series that year, getting 11 hits in the seven-game series. If not for the amazing series Roberto Clemente had, Sanguillen may have been the series MVP.
He was an all-star again in 1972 and a third time in 1975, when he suddenly learned how to take a walk. His .391 on-base percentage that year was by far the best of his career. He maintained an above-average on-base percentage in 1976, but was limited to 114 games.
The 1976 season was rough for the Pittsburgh franchise. They failed to make the playoffs after having done so five times in the previous six years. Then, shortly after the season ended, pitcher Bob Moose died in a car accident. About a month later, the very popular Manny Sanguillen was “traded” to the Oakland Athletics for manager Chuck Tanner. In reality, the Pirates had signed Tanner to manage their team and A’s owner Charlie Finley demanded Sanguillen as compensation. About a month after Sanguillen was traded away, longtime manager Danny Murtaugh died of a stroke. Murtaugh had managed the Pirates in 1971 when they were the first team in Major League Baseball history to field an entire starting lineup consisting of nine African-American players.
Sanguillen was only gone for one year. The Pirates acquired him in a trade in April 1978 and he spent the season in a part-time role. He was 34-years-old by this point and no longer the hitter he’d once been. He played two more years with the Pirates, but played less and less often. When the 1979 World Series rolled around, Sanguillen came off the bench for three pinch-hit appearances. He was 1 for 3 with an RBI. After the 1980 season, he was included in a trade that sent Bert Blyleven to Cleveland, but was released during spring training and retired.
One of the heart-wrenching stories about Manny Sanguillen comes from the 1972 death of close friend Roberto Clemente. Sanguillen was supposed to accompany Clemente on the relief mission to Nicaragua, but missed the plane because he couldn’t find his car keys. The news of the plane crashed devastated him. He went to the site where the plane went into the water and dove into shark-infested waters to search for the bodies. Teammate Steve Blass told The Sporting News, “Manny dove from dawn till midnight.