Al Pedrique

Alfredo José Pedrique García (Spanish pronunciation: [peˈðɾike], born August 11, 1960) is a Venezuelan professional baseball player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the New York Mets (1987), Pittsburgh Pirates (1987, 88) and Detroit Tigers (1989). Pedrique served as the Houston Astros bench coach and as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He is currently the first base coach of the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB).

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Pedrique and the second or maternal family name is García.
Al Pedrique
Oakland Athletics – No. 41
Shortstop / Coach
Born: (1960-08-11) August 11, 1960
Aragua State, Venezuela
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
April 14, 1987, for the New York Mets
Last MLB appearance
June 21, 1989, for the Detroit Tigers
MLB statistics
Batting average.247
Home runs1
Runs batted in36
Teams
As player

As coach

As manager

Playing career

Pedrique was signed by the Mets in 1978 and made his debut nine years later. After five games with the team, he hit .301 with the Pirates in his rookie season, but only managed a .188 cumulative batting average after that.

Pedrique was a career .247 hitter with one home run, 36 RBI, 32 runs, 18 doubles, one triple, and five stolen bases in 174 games.

Managerial and coaching career
Pedrique (middle) coaches third base during a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders game in 2016

After retiring, Pedrique managed in the minors for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Houston Astros and Kansas City Royals organizations from 2000 to 2002. He came back to the majors in 2003 as a third base coach for the Diamondbacks. In 2004, he began the season as manager of the Tucson Sidewinders, the Diamondbacks Triple-A affiliate, but he was hired as manager of the Diamondbacks on an interim basis when Bob Brenly was fired in July. Pedrique compiled a 22–61 record. He was replaced by Wally Backman, and then Bob Melvin, at the end of the season.

Pedrique created some controversy as manager when he ordered the Diamondbacks pitching staff to intentionally walk Barry Bonds throughout an entire three-game series against the San Francisco Giants from September 10–12, since Bonds was on the verge of hitting his 700th career home run, which Pedrique did not want to happen at Bank One Ballpark.[1] Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated called the incident one of "professional cowardice." [2]

While serving as a special assistant for the Houston Astros in 2007, Pedrique was in Venezuela and championed a 16-year old José Altuve to the front office, convincing them that he had the talent and strength to eventually play in the major leagues. Altuve had been dismissed by scouts as being too short and thought he was lying about his age.[3]

The Astros hired Pedrique as their bench coach on October 31, 2009, after previously serving as their Minor League Field Coordinator and third base coach.[4] In 2013, Pedrique was hired as manager of the Yankees' Class-A affiliate Charleston RiverDogs. In 2014, the New York Yankees promoted Pedrique to the manager of the Tampa Yankees.[5] In 2015, Pedrique was promoted to manager of the Trenton Thunder. On January 6, 2016, Pedrique was announced as the manager of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.[6] In his first season as manager, he led the RailRiders to a North Division title. He then led the RailRiders to the International League's Governors' Cup championship and won. After that, he then led the RailRiders to win Triple-A National Championship Game and won that as well. In his second and final season as RailRiders manager, he led the RailRiders to a North Division title once again. The RailRiders ended up losing to the Durham Bulls, who went on to win the Triple A National Championship at the RailRiders field, in the Governors' Cup Championship.

On December 4, 2017, Pedrique was hired by the Oakland A's as first base coach.[7]

Managerial records
TeamYearRegular SeasonPost Season
WonLostWin %FinishWonLostWin %Result
ARI2004 2261.2655th in NL West––––
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See also
  • List of players from Venezuela in Major League Baseball

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on October 5, 2012. Retrieved July 13, 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. Justice, Richard (April 29, 2018). "Altuve 'went against all the odds' to reach Majors: Pedrique knew then-16-year-old Venezuelan had what it takes". MLB.com. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
  4. "Astros add trio of coaches on Friday". Major League Baseball. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  5. "Tampa Yankees - Tampa Yankees News". Tampa Yankees. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  6. "Pedrique Headlines SWB Field Staff Changes - Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders News". Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  7. Lee, Jane. "Athletics add Al Pedrique to coaching staff". MLB.com.


Sporting positions
Preceded by
Mike Aldrete		 Oakland Athletics first base coach
2018–		 Succeeded by
Incumbent
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