Rookie of the Year: Angel Berroa, 2003

Shortstop, Kansas City Royals

Age:  25

Bats – Right, Throws – Right

Height: 6’0”    Weight: 195

Prior to 2003:

Berroa, from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, signed initially with the Oakland Athletics in 1997. Playing in 50 games at the Rookie and Class AA levels in 1999, he batted .269. With the Visalia Oaks of the High Class A California League in 2000, Berroa batted .277 with 10 home runs and 63 RBIs and was viewed as a good prospect.  He was dealt to the Royals as part of a three-team-trade in 2001 and hit .317 in 51 games with Wilmington of the Carolina League before being promoted to Wichita of the Class AA Texas League where he batted .296 with 20 doubles, 4 triples, and 8 home runs over the course of 80 games. Receiving a September call-up to the Royals, Berroa appeared in 15 games and hit .302 in 53 at bats. Sent to Omaha of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League for further development in 2002, his average dropped to .215 with 8 home runs and 35 RBIs. Called up to the Royals again he hit .227 in 20 games. Despite his disappointing hitting, the Royals waived starting shortstop Neifi Perez in the offseason to open a spot for Berroa in the lineup for 2003.

2003 Season Summary

Appeared in 158 games

SS – 158

[Bracketed numbers indicate AL rank in Top 20]

Batting

Plate Appearances – 635

At Bats – 567

Runs – 92 [20, tied with Todd Walker & Rafael Palmeiro]

Hits – 163

Doubles – 28

Triples – 7 [10, tied with Scott Spiezio & Dmitri Young]

Home Runs – 17

RBI – 73

Bases on Balls – 29

Int. BB – 3

Strikeouts – 100

Stolen Bases – 21 [11]

Caught Stealing – 5

Average - .287

OBP - .338

Slugging Pct. - .451

Total Bases – 256

GDP – 13

Hit by Pitches – 18 [4]

Sac Hits – 13 [2]

Sac Flies – 8 [9, tied with Casey Blake, Vernon Wells & Miguel Tejada]

Midseason snapshot: HR - 9, RBI - 37, AVG - .283, OBP - .343

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Most hits, game – 5 (in 5 AB) at Cleveland 9/16

Longest hitting streak – 8 games

Most HR, game – 1 on seventeen occasions

HR at home – 6

HR on road – 11

Multi-HR games – 0

Most RBIs, game – 3 on five occasions

Pinch-hitting – No appearances

Fielding

Chances – 761

Put Outs – 264

Assists – 473

Errors – 24

DP - 108

Pct. - .968

Awards & Honors:

AL Rookie of the Year: BBWAA

AL ROY Voting:

Angel Berroa, KC.: 88 pts. – 12 of 28 first place votes, 63% share

Hideki Matsui, NYY.: 84 pts. –10 first place votes, 60% share

Rocco Baldelli, TB: 51 pts. – 5 first place votes, 36% share

Jody Gerut, Clev.: 20 pts. – 14% share

Mark Teixeira, Tex.: 9 pts. – 1 first place vote, 6% share

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Royals went went 83-79 to finish third in the AL Central Division, 7 games behind the division-winning Minnesota Twins. The team started strong at 16-3 and spent 93 days in first place before fading out of contention in the last two months.  

Aftermath of 2003:

Berroa suffered through a difficult season in 2004 in which he was sent down to Wichita at one point. He ended up batting .262 in 134 games for the Royals with 27 doubles, 6 triples, 8 home runs, and 43 RBIs. Berroa was again the starting shortstop in 2005 and hit .270 with 11 home runs but with few walks drawn and a subsequently low on-base percentage. The situation worsened in 2006 as Berroa batted .234 with a .259 OBP. He found himself back in Omaha in 2007 where he hit .300 with 8 home runs and saw his OBP rise to .364. He appeared in just 9 games with the Royals and hit .091. Failing to make the Royals in 2008 he returned to Omaha until traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in June where he was expected to be a short-term fill-in at shortstop. He ended up appearing in 84 games with the Dodgers and batted .230 in 226 at bats. He also appeared in the postseason for the only time, going one-for-two as a batter. Berroa signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees in 2009 and ended up playing in 21 games with the Yanks before being released. He signed with the Mets and hit .233 in 14 games before again being let go. Berroa signed with the Dodgers in 2010 but failed to make the club in spring training. His next stop in his declining career was later in 2010 with the Fresno Grizzlies, a Class AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants in the Pacific Coast League. He performed poorly and was released. He moved on to the Reno Aces, an Arizona affiliate in the PCL in 2011 and batted .320 in 42 games. Berroa bounced around with teams in minor independent leagues for the remainder of 2011 and 2012 before appearing with three Mexican League clubs between 2013 and ’15 which concluded his ultimately disappointing career. In the major leagues, he hit .258 with 46 home runs and 254 RBIs. With the Royals he appeared in 627 games and batted .263 with 45 home runs and 235 RBIs. His 2003 Rookie of the Year season remained his best.

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Rookie of the Year Profiles feature players who were recipients of the Rookie of the Year Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (1947 to present). The award was presented to a single major league winner from its inception through 1948 and from 1949 on to one recipient from each major league.