Article: Felipe Crespo, The Almost Successor To Roberto Alomar

[Mac]

Felipe Crespo was part of Toronto’s 1990 draft class, which was lauded thanks to the Blue Jays opening up their wallet. 22nd overall pick Steve Karsay received top dollar from Toronto to turn down a scholarship from LSU, and it took even more cash for future Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke to put his football dreams on hold to pursue a career in professional baseball. In the third round, the Blue Jays took Crespo, a high schooler from Puerto Rico whose talents had him projected to be drafted long before.

That year’s fifth-round pick, Scott Burrell, made his SkyDome debut in 1998, scoring 20 off the bench for the Chicago Bulls in a 123-86 win over the Raptors.

Assigned to Toronto’s rookie ball affiliate in Medicine Hat, Crespo wasn’t quite Gavin McKenna in the Gas City, but he slashed .310/.397/.478 as an 18-year-old. As the Blue Jays won World Series titles in 1992 and 1993, Crespo continued to show promise as a player who could keep the machine rolling. He followed his debut season by hitting .281 for pre-Kenny-Powers Single-A Myrtle Beach and then produced an .830 OPS in Advanced-A the following year.

Crespo played second base in his first three seasons, but when he showed up in Dunedin for spring training in 1994, he had a new assignment. Crespo was assigned to Double-A Knoxville and would play third base, swapping positions with Chris Stynes, his teammate from the previous two seasons. Stynes took to second base and played well enough to be named Baseball America’s top fielder at the position in the Southern League. The same could not be said for Crespo. He committed 11 errors in his first 20 games at the position, and while his play did improve, a season-ending thumb injury kept him eight errors shy of the all-time league record for errors at third, finishing with 42.

Chris Stynes was Knoxville’s MVP in 1994, had a ten-year career, and is an immaculate grid god. Thank me later.

Weeks before baseball resumed after the 1994 strike, new general manager Gord Ash made a splash by re-acquiring David Cone from the Royals. Among the players sent away for Cone was Stynes, which meant Crespo’s well-earned promotion to Triple-A Syracuse came with a relieving move back to second base. Crespo impressed the Blue Jays with a strong spring training that year and hit .294 for Syracuse, putting himself on the major league radar heading into 1996.

Toronto had finished at the bottom of the AL East at 56-88, and the departure of Roberto Alomar in the off-season put a giant hole at second base. Crespo would fight for playing time with three players: Domingo Cedeno, who had been the backup the previous few seasons, and fellow prospects Miguel Cairo and Tilson Brito. Crespo was viewed as the best hitter of the bunch, but understandable questions remained about his defence. Cedeno appeared to be the betting favourite for the position, and while he maintained front-runner status to start at second throughout spring, Crespo was having the month of his career.

Crespo hit .444 in spring, and as Opening Day drew close, he was named the starting second baseman by manager Cito Gaston. It was a spot he would not be able to take. While stretching on the on-deck circle in the spring training finale, Crespo pulled his hamstring, forcing him to miss the opener. He would not debut until April 28, when Cito decided to let him on the field by replacing Ed Sprague in a 17-3 drubbing by Cleveland. Debuting at third, Crespo was solid with the glove, handling a groundout in his first inning of work and then rolling a 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Manny Ramirez to end the seventh inning.

At the plate, Crespo was 0-for-2 in his debut, and the bat would not get going when he had the chance to play. Cito told reporters he wanted to play Crespo but said Cedeno, who had factored in so greatly that he was jettisoned before the season’s end, was playing too well. Crespo’s first major league hit came in his second career start on May 16 in Minneapolis. The natural progression from this was for Cito not to start him for five days and then bat him leadoff for two games. Felipe, Travis. Travis, Felipe.

Gaston’s lineups in 1996 are aggravating present-day me. For the first two months, the second hitter was the second baseman except on the rarest of occasions. Cedeno? Brito? Crespo? Didn’t matter, even with John Olerud batting sixth. Wait, John Olerud batting sixth? A different John Olerud?

Standard Batting Table

Season	Age	Team	Lg	WAR	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1991	22	TOR	AL	1.8	139	541	454	64	116	30	1	17	68	68	84	.256	.353	.438	.791	115
1992	23	TOR	AL	3.4	138	537	458	68	130	28	0	16	66	70	61	.284	.375	.450	.825	127
1993	24	TOR	AL	7.8	158	679	551	109	200	54	2	24	107	114	65	.363	.473	.599	1.072	186
1994	25	TOR	AL	3.2	108	453	384	47	114	29	2	12	67	61	53	.297	.393	.477	.869	124
1995	26	TOR	AL	2.2	135	581	492	72	143	32	0	8	54	84	54	.291	.398	.404	.802	111
1996	27	TOR	AL	2.5	125	469	398	59	109	25	0	18	61	60	37	.274	.382	.472	.854	116

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

No, same guy. I don’t care what baseball in 1996 was, I am ready to re-mutiny Cito. Crespo was sent down after recording two hits in 23 at-bats but hit better when he was called back up in September. He was in the mix for a spot on the roster, which was further crowded when the Jays added Carlos Garcia in free agency, with a little less pomp than the signing of Roger Clemens. Crespo added in defensive reps at first base (tell ‘em, Wash) and in the outfield during spring as the team tried to figure out what to do with him defensively. He played well enough to beat out Mike Aldrete for one of the final spots on the Blue Jays bench.

Emphasis on bench. He pinch hit on April 15, pinch ran on April 21, and then was send down to Triple-A when Toronto needed an extra pitcher. Toronto went with Garcia at second base in the first half, who produced a god awful slash of .220/.253/.309, good for a solid, round -2.0 WAR. When Toronto finally moved away from starting Garcia, they turned to 34-year-old Mariano Duncan, who had a similarly feeble slash of .228/.267/.263. And yes, they both hit second in the order for good chunks of the season.

Crespo hit well enough in Triple A, going .259/.366/.424 with 12 home runs. He was called up in September again and hit his first career big league home run off Jamie Moyer at the Kingdome that month. As Toronto headed into 1998 under new manager Tim Johnson, Crespo again had momentum building to make the team in some capacity, especially with Garcia and Duncan gone from the roster.

Future guest writer Tim Johnson. I’ll add a few disclaimers to anything he decides to remember.

Crespo’s 1998 would prove to be a more consistent version of his previous two seasons. He made his way into the lineup throughout the season with his bat and versatility but neither overly impressed. Crespo slashed .262/.342/.362 in a career high 153 plate appearances. He played all four infield positions and all three outfield spots throughout the season but his defensive struggles continued. Playing second on September 27 against Detroit, Crespo committed an error in the fifth inning that cost Roy Halladay a chance at a perfect game in THAT Roy Halladay game.

Out of options in 1999, Crespo lasted about a week into spring training before the Blue Jays designated him for assignment. He would go on to sign with San Francisco, spending 1999 in Triple-A before returning to the majors in 2000 with the Giants. He split the following season with the Giants and Phillies, went to Japan in 2002, and retired following comeback bids with the Reds and Marlins.

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[Mike LeSage]

Man, those mid-90s Cito lineups really were something ! 

[Spanky__99]

My buddy played with Crespo coming through the minors, cool.