Héctor Carrasco

[William Malone]

Héctor Pacheco Carrasco was born on October 22, 1969 in the Dominican Republic.

He was signed by the New York Mets as an amateur free agent in 1988. Carrasco spent time in four different organizations as a minor leaguer, finally breaking in with the Cincinnati Reds during the 1994 season. His 2.24 ERA with six saves over 56.1 innings as a rookie helped him finish eighth place in the 1994 NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Carrasco was traded to the Kansas City Royals at the deadline in 1997. The Arizona Diamondbacks took him during the expansion draft in the following off-season, but he didn't make the team out of camp and was claimed on waivers by the Minnesota Twins. He had a 4.38 ERA and a 1.791 WHIP across 61.2 innings for the Twins in 1998, which made him one of the team's better relievers. As a team, Minnesota owned a 4.47 bullpen ERA that year.

His ERA ballooned up to 4.96 in 1999, before calming down a bit to 4.25 over 61 appearances in 2000. Carrasco was especially good during the months of July and August, pitching to a 2.28 ERA through 27.2 innings. This hot streak gave the Twins an opportunity to trade him, sending him off to the Boston Red Sox in a late season waiver trade. Minnesota received outfield prospect Lew Ford, a former 12th round pick who was still just in Single-A.

Carrasco began to struggle again in Boston, posting a 9.45 ERA during his eight September appearances. This included a blown save on September 15th, and a registered loss on September 29th. The Red Sox fell three games short in a tight AL East race, also missing out of a wild card spot.

He returned to the Twins as a free agent in the off-season, meaning the Red Sox had traded Ford to Minnesota for just eight games of lackluster relief work in a tight playoff race. Carrasco had a 4.64 ERA in 73.2 relief innings during the 2001 season, while Ford was in their minor league system becoming a legit prospect. This was the final season Carrasco spent with the Twins. He had a 4.53 ERA between his two stints there, getting used out of the bullpen 219 times.

Carrasco continued pitching at the big league level through 2007, pitching for three different teams. He had a career year on the inaugural Washington Nationals team in 2005, posting a 2.04 ERA over 88.1 innings. Washington briefly made him a starter during one stretch of the season, and he even had a stretch of three consecutive scoreless starts. The shortest of these was 5.2 innings.

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