1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – Chris Gomez

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former shortstop Chris Gomez.

Gomez was originally drafted in the 37^th round of the 1989 major league draft by the California Angels out of Lakewood High School in Lakewood, CA.  Gomez declined the Angels offer, and it paid off, as he was then drafted in the third round in the 1992 draft by the Detroit Tigers out of Cal State-Long Beach.  The 49ers have produced a total of 53 major leaguers, including Jason Giambi, Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria and Jered Weaver.  They also produced a player named Joey Terdoslavich, who is currently in the Braves system.  My son and I were at a Louisville Bats game last year, and a late-middle aged man kept voicing in a loud way “JOEY, KEEP IT UP, WE’RE GOING TO SEE YOU IN ATLANTA IN NO TIME”.  He had Braves garb on, so I don’t think there was any sarcasm there.  He said it in a matter-of-fact way.  And he was right.  Terdoslavich DID make it to Atlanta last year, where he batted .215 across 92 plate appearances in 55 games.  Anyway, back to Gomez.

Thanks for believing in me, random dude in Louisville.

Upon his signing, Gomez was assigned straight to AA London.  The Tigers, sensing the end of the Alan Trammell era may be near, were pleased with the results.  He was a solid, if not spectacular player, hitting .268 with 13 doubles, two triples, one home run and 19 RBIs with 20 walks and 34 strikeouts.  He also was solid in the field, playing shortstop to the tune of a .951 fielding percentage.

In 1993, he was promoted to AAA Toledo, where his numbers took a hit in a league where players averaged four years older than his 22 year old self.  He hit .245 with 12 doubles, two triples and 20 RBIs with 23 walks and 37 strikeouts.  His fielding improved one full percentage point to .961.  The decision to promote him was somewhat odd, considering Trammell was having a bounceback year, and the Tigers also had a young shortstop by the name of Travis Fryman also hitting .300.  But you can never have enough shortstops, so the Tigers said “Come on down!”

That's incredible.

Gomez would make his major league debut on July 19^th, 1993 in a Tigers’ 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins.  The Twins would jump out to a two run lead in the top of the first on a RBI single by Kent Hrbek and an RBI groundout by Dave Winfield.  In the second inning, they added two more on a RBI double by Sean Bergman and a sac fly by Kirby Puckett.  That would be all the support that Scott Erickson would need, as he only surrendered a sixth inning RBI single to Fryman and a solo home run by Kirk Gibson in the seventh inning.  Rick Aguilera would enter in the ninth inning to shut the door for career save 147.  

Meanwhile, Gomez went 0-2 with a groundout to the pitcher and third base, before being lifted for Trammell in the seventh inning.  Gomez would get his first career hit, a triple, three days later off of Enrique Burgos in a 12-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals.  He would finish the 1993 campaign hitting .250 with seven doubles, a triple and 11 RBIs with nine walks and 17 strikeouts.

In 1994, Gomez started the season on the major league roster, but he didn’t make his debut until the fifth game of the season on April 9^th.  His lone hit that day in three at bats was only one of three he would have the entire month, as he ended it hitting .136 with one RBI, two walks and five strikeouts.  That certainly didn’t foreshadow a fourth place Rookie of the Year finish.

I'm a winner!

Gomez had two of his finest games of that season in May.  On May 7^th, he hit his first career home run off of Chris Bosio, and also his second career home run off of Bill Risley, in a rain-shortened 10-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners.  Ten days later, he would go 2-2 with a double and home run with six RBIs in a 13-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.  Overall for the month, he hit .346 with seven doubles, five home runs and 26 RBIs, with 15 walks and 16 strikeouts.

June would see Gomez’ numbers slip somewhat.  He had four RBIs on June 8^th in a 14-5 victory over the Boston Red Sox, but other than that, he didn’t have any monster games like he had in May.  His plate discipline also took a hit.  He hit .261 with four doubles, two home runs and 16 RBIs with six walks and 22 strikeouts.  He did steal his first bases of the season, totaling four and only being caught once.

As bad as June was, July was even worse for Gomez.  Continuing to split time between shortstop and second base as he did in June, he only hit .217 with seven doubles, a home run and nine RBIs with 10 walks and 14 strikeouts.

With the season quickly approaching an abrupt end, Gomez limped to the finish line.  In six games in August, Gomez only hit .190 with a double and an RBI, with no walks and seven strikeouts.

Overall that season, Gomez hit .257 with 19 doubles, eight home runs and 53 RBIs with 33 walks and 64 strikeouts.  One could argue that his May alone earned him the votes in the Rookie of the Year voting.  He did have a fielding percentage of .978 across 57 games at shortstop and 30 games at second base. 

It was pretty much downhill for Gomez from there.  He would spend another season and a half in Detroit, hitting .227 with 25 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs and 66 RBIs with 59 walks and 116 strikeouts.  On June 18^th, 1996, he was traded with John Flaherty to the San Diego Padres for Russ Spear, Brad Ausmus and Andujar Cedeno.  In five seasons with the Padres, he hit .253 with 78 doubles, seven triples, 13 home runs and 147 RBIs with 186 walks and 333 strikeouts.  The Padres released him on June 22^nd, 2001.

For the balance of the 2001 season and all of 2002, Gomez was a Tampa Bay Devil Ray.  There, he would hit .275 with 47 doubles, three triples, 18 home runs and 82 RBIs with 29 walks and 82 strikeouts.  He used his moderate success in Tampa Bay to latch onto the Minnesota Twins for 2003, where he would hit .251 with nine doubles, three triples, one home run and 15 RBIs with seven walks and 13 strikeouts.  He would bounce back with the Toronto Blue Jays the following season, hitting .282 with 11 doubles, one triple, three home runs and 37 RBIs with 28 walks and 41 strikeouts.

Sorry for running all of these seasons together, but when you’re reviewing the career of Chris Gomez, there’s not a lot of filler to be filled.  Back to Gomez!

The 2005 season saw Gomez arrive in Baltimore, but he had a somewhat circuitous path there.  On December 8^th, 2004, he was signed by the Orioles.  Then, five days later, he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the Rule 5 draft.  Seven days after THAT, he was purchased by the Orioles from the Phillies.  The Orioles must have REALLY wanted Gomez.  He would have two and a half seasons in Baltimore, where he would hit .302 with 28 doubles, one triple, four home runs and 51 RBIs with 44 walks and 48 strikeouts.

The Orioles placed him on waivers during the 2007 season, and he was claimed by the Cleveland Indians on August 9^th.  For the remainder of that season, he hit .283 with two doubles and five RBIs with six strikeouts.  Released by the Indians after the season, he would sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2008.  There, he would hit .273 with eight doubles, one home run and 20 RBIs with 13 walks and 30 strikeouts.  He was released by the Pirates after the season.  He resigned with the Orioles for the 2009 season, but they released him right before the start of the season, marking the end of his career.

Overall for his 16 year career, he hit .262 with 234 doubles, 18 triples, 60 home runs and 487 RBIs with408 walks and 750 strikeouts.  His career fielding percentage was .976 across all positions played, only averaging about one error for every 10 games played.  He went to the postseason four times, and even made it to the World Series in 1998.  While the Yankees beat down the Padres in the four game sweep, Gomez had the second highest batting average of any Padre with more than 10 at bats, hitting .364 (Tony Gwynn hit .500).

There’s nothing more to really say about Gomez.  He never sniffed any sort of award, or even league leader in any notable category whatsoever.  I’m sure he was an affable character.  Probably paid his taxes on time.  Didn’t exactly LIKE the smell of Head and Shoulders, but wasn’t opposed to it either.

Now that we’ve gotten the Gomez speed bump out of the way, I fondly remember next week’s subject, Steve Trachsel.  Why?  You’ll have to wait a week and read to find out!