Former Twins LHP Carlos Pulido Passed Away at 52 on Thursday
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On Thursday, we learned of the death of former Twins pitcher Carlos Pulido. The Venezuelan southpaw pitched in just 32 games for the Twins, but his career was quite interesting.
Thirty-five years ago, there were some MLB players from Venezuela, but very few in comparison to today. The Twins signed Carlos Pulido as a 17-year-old in February of 1989. He jumped directly to the Gulf Coast League, where he went 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA. In 36 innings, he had 46 strikeouts and issued 14 walks.
In 1990, he moved up to Low-A Kenosha, where he pitched in 56 games out of the bullpen. He was 5-5 with a 2.34 ERA. In 61 2/3 innings, he had 70 strikeouts, but he also walked 36 batters.
The following year, 1991, was a pretty good one in Twins history. Pulido pitched in 57 games for High-A Visalia. He went 1-5, but posted an ERA of just 2.01. He had 17 saves. In 80 2/3 innings, he struck out 102 batters. He also walked 23, a very respectable improvement. He ended the season with two appearances at Triple A.
In 1992, he was 20 years old and moved up to Double-A Orlando. He pitched in 52 games, and for the first time as a pro, he made a start. In fact, he made five. He went 6-2 with a 4.40 ERA. Then, in 1993, he moved up to Triple-A Portland, where 22 of his 33 appearances were as a starter. He went 10-6 with a 4.19 ERA over 146 innings. Of course, as a starter, his pure stuff wasn’t as dominant. In 146 innings, he had just 79 strikeouts.
However, some of you may remember 1994. The Twins struggled to a 53-60 record in the strike-shortened season. Their starting staff was comprised of Kevin Tapani (4.62 ERA), Scott Erickson (5.44 ERA), Jim Deshaies (7.39 ERA), Pat Mahomes (4.73 ERA). Eddie Guardado posted an 8.47 ERA over his first four MLB starts.
On April 9th, 1994, Pulido made his MLB debut. In a Metrodome game against the Oakland A’s, he gave up six runs on nine hits and three walks over 3 1/3 innings. In his second outing, he worked two scoreless innings against the A’s. Then, a week after his debut, he worked six innings out of the bullpen against the same club and gave up just two runs.
On May 6th, Pulido completed eight innings and gave up only an unearned run on five hits against the Royals, for his first big-league win. His next outing came against the Red Sox. He gave up just one run on three hits and no walks over seven innings. The Twins won that game 21-2, and Pulido was 2-3. Then came some losses, and then in mid-June, he tossed six innings and gave up just two runs against the White Sox.
That game marked the first time in MLB history that two pitchers from Venezuela started against each other. That we’re still shy of the 30th anniversary of that milestone is rather jarring, considering the prevalence of venezolanos in today’s MLB, and underscores the important trailblazing role Pulido played, even if it was partially incidental. Not long ago, Venezuela was considered the land of shortstops–but only shortstops, or mostly so. Now, many of the best players in baseball hail from that nation, and there’s no one player type that is radically overrepresented. Pulido was among the first major wave of players who helped forge that new reality.
