Ronny Cedeño
Ronny Alexander Salazar Cedeño, is a Venezuelan former professional baseball shortstop, who played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Mets, Houston Astros, San Diego Padres, and Philadelphia Phillies. Cedeño batted and threw right-handed.
Professional career
Chicago Cubs
Cedeño spent his five-season minor league career playing in the Cubs' farm system, reaching the Double-A level in with the Diamond Jaxx. In 116 games, he posted a.279 batting average with six home runs and 48 RBI. He was selected as a midseason Southern League All-Star.Cedeño was called up in April, 2005, to replace Nomar Garciaparra on the Cubs' roster. He made big-league debut for the Chicago Cubs on April 23 but spent most of his time on the bench, as Neifi Pérez was awarded the starting job. After the Cubs signed Enrique Wilson, Cedeño was sent back down to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. In 65 games at Iowa in 2005, Cedeño batted an impressive.355, and slugged over.500 for the first time in his professional career. He returned to the Cubs in June after Wilson was himself sent down to Iowa.
Cedeño became the team's starting shortstop in 2006. He played in 151 games, hit.245, and had 25 errors. In 2006, he walked only 3.1% of the time, the lowest percentage in the National League, and 4 of his 17 walks were intentional walks. He also had the Major League's worst walk/strikeout ratio—0.16.
He played in the 2006 winter league for Venezuela, and averaged.555 in 45 games with 25 runs and 28 RBI.
Cedeño began 2007 with the Major League club on the bench, as the Cubs were set at shortstop and second base with César Izturis and Mark DeRosa. His offensive struggles continued, batting.118 at the big league level through August, and he spent several more months in Triple-A Iowa.
When the Cubs traded their starting center fielder Jacque Jones in November 2007, general manager Jim Hendry indicated that the club wasn't necessarily looking outside for a veteran, with Cedeño as well as Félix Pie and Sam Fuld in the mix. Cedeño was asked to play some center field during the winter.
In 2008, Cedeño made the Major League club out of spring training and spent the entire season with the Cubs, playing primarily off the bench as Reed Johnson and later Jim Edmonds were signed to play center field and Ryan Theriot was ensconced at shortstop. As the season progressed, he saw more opportunities to start at second base and shortstop, and got many opportunities off the bench as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He ended the year hitting.269 with 41 strikeouts in 216 at-bats, making 31 starts at second and 20 at shortstop.
Seattle Mariners
On January 28, 2009, Cedeño was traded with Garrett Olson to the Seattle Mariners for Aaron Heilman. Cedeño replaced Yuniesky Betancourt as starting shortstop for the Seattle Mariners after Betancourt was put on the DL and later traded to the Kansas City Royals. Cedeño made 39 starts at shortstop for Seattle, as well as a handful of starts at second, left field, and third base. He batted.167 in 206 plate appearances with Seattle.Pittsburgh Pirates
On July 29, 2009, Cedeño was traded with Jeff Clement, Aaron Pribanic, Brett Lorin, and Nathan Adcock to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Jack Wilson and Ian Snell. He started 42 games at shortstop and batted.258 for Pittsburgh on the year.Cedeño finished 2009 with 8 doubles, 3 triples, and a career high 10 home runs. He also drove in 38 runs, was issued a then-career high 19 walks, 3 of them intentional, struck out 79 times, and stole 5 bases, to go along with a.208 average, a.256 on-base percentage, a.337 slugging percentage, in 341 at-bats split between Seattle and Pittsburgh.
Cedeño was the Pirates Opening Day shortstop in 2010 and he made 132 starts on the year. He was briefly benched by manager John Russell in June as he struggled with consistency. He finished with a batting line of.256/.293/.382 and 18 errors in the field.
Although the Pirates pursued other shortstops during the off-season as there were questions about Cedeño's focus, he returned as the Opening Day starter in 2011. Cedeño made 118 starts at shortstop on the year with a brief trip to the disabled list in July with a concussion. He batted.249/.297/.339 with 13 errors. At the end of the season, the Pirates decided not to pick up Cedeño's $3 million option and signed Clint Barmes to play shortstop.