José Valdivielso
José Martinez de Valdivielso (born José Martinez de Valdivielso López, May 22, 1934) is a Cuban-born former professional baseball player. A shortstop, he appeared in 401 games over all or part of five seasons in Major League Baseball, between 1955 and 1961, for the Washington Senators and their later incarnation, the Minnesota Twins. The native of Matanzas threw and batted right-handed; he was listed as 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and 175 pounds (79 kg).
| José Valdivielso | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Shortstop | |||
| Born: May 22, 1934 Matanzas, Cuba | |||
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| MLB debut | |||
| June 21, 1955, for the Washington Senators | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 30, 1961, for the Minnesota Twins | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .219 | ||
| Home runs | 9 | ||
| Runs batted in | 85 | ||
| Teams | |||
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In 1960, the team's sixtieth and last season in Washington, Valdivielso was the Senators' most-used shortstop, starting in 92 games and playing a career-high 117 contests. But by late September he had lost his starting job to Zoilo Versalles, a 20-year-old fellow countryman; Versalles would hold down the Twins' starting shortstop job through 1967 and, as the American League's Most Valuable Player, lead the Twins to the 1965 pennant.
Valdivielso's professional career extended through the 1964 season. All told, he collected 213 hits in the Majors, with 26 doubles and eight triples to go along with his nine home runs.
Sources
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Baseball-Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet