Manny Piña

[Michael Trzinski]

Manuel Elias Piña Reyes was born in 1987 in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. He was signed in 2004 by Texas Rangers scout Manny Batista. ‘Manny Pineapple,’ a sobriquet which was a play on his last name, started his pro career for the Rangers in the Rookie Arizona League in 2005 but played only 27 games. The following year was even worse; Piña played in 14 contests and then missed the rest of the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his right elbow.

The righty-hitting catcher spent the next three seasons working his way through the Rangers organization, making it as high as Double-A Frisco in the Texas League. At the tail end of the 2009 season, Piña was traded to the Kansas City Royals.

Piña kicked around at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in the Royals chain for the next four years. He got two brief sips of Starbucks in 2011 and 2012 in Kansas City, where he played in five games and went a disappointing 3-for-16, including a pair of two-base hits. Piña continued toiling in the minors for the Royals, Detroit Tigers, and Seattle Mariners through the 2015 season. Later that winter he was traded to the Brewers as the infamous PTBNL part of the Francisco Rodriguez trade.

After Jonathan Lucroy was traded to the Rangers in July 2016, Piña was called up to the Brewers. Piña was pressed into action for Milwaukee, where he started 17 of 33 games he played in the final two months. He acquitted himself well, slashing .254/.346/.394 across 71 at-bats. Piña made his first big-league home run a memorable one, as he slammed a pinch-hit three-run jack off Cincinnati’s Keyvius Sampson in the bottom of the ninth in a 7-4 loss on August 12.

Piña became C1 in 2017 and got most of the catcher at-bats over the next year as well, over platoon partners that included Stephen Vogt, Jett Bandy, and Erik Kratz. Piña’s hitting line showed .266/.317/.410 across 205 games and 636 ABs. He hit nine homers each year and surprisingly, added two triples and four stolen bases over the two-year span. Piña also showed his defensive side as well, throwing out 35.6% and 40.8% respectively, of runners trying to steal. His 40.8% was good for second-best in the NL in 2018.

With newly acquired Yasmani Grandal getting the lion’s share of the playing time at catcher in 2019, Piña saw his on-field time dwindle down to 53 games behind the plate, with another 24 games as a pinch-hitter. He finished the year with a slash line of .228/.313/.411 across 158 at-bats, adding seven homers and 25 RBIs.

Piña’s already short 2020 season (Covid-19) became shorter when he tore the meniscus in his right-knee. The highlight of his season was when he hit home runs in back-to-back innings in a 6-4 win over Minnesota on August 11. Otherwise, not much good happened during the 15 games he appeared in.

In 2021, Piña was a solid platoon/back-up as he hit a career-high 13 home runs but slipped to a batting line of .189/.293/.439 across 180 at-bats. His .439 slugging percentage was also a career high. Piña became a free agent after the season and was quickly snapped up by the Atlanta Braves. The two sides agreed on a two-year, $8 million contract, but both sides would soon be disappointed as Piña injured his left wrist in April and missed the last five months of the season.

Just before Christmas 2022, Piña was a part of a three-way trade between the Braves, the Brewers, and the Oakland Athletics. That swap netted superstar catcher William Contreras and pitcher Joel Payamps. Both would play key roles over the following two seasons for the Brewers.

 Piña on the other hand, would not play a key role for Oakland, as he missed all but four games in 2023 because of a lingering left wrist injury. He was DFA’d on July 31 and was released four days later.  Piña missed all of the 2024 season due to that injury.

Pending a miraculous comeback at age 37, Piña will finish with a career slash line of .243/.312/.410 with 43 home runs. 149 RBIs, and 55 two-base hits.

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