Mark Salas

[William Malone]

Mark Bruce Salas was born on March 8, 1961 in Montebello, California.

The St. Louis Cardinals selected him in round 18 of the 1979 MLB Draft. He made his Major League debut for them in 1984, going 2-for-20 (.100) in 14 games of action. The Minnesota Twins claimed him in the Rule 5 Draft that off-season.

Salas began 1985 as the backup to veteran Tim Laudner. He hit .367 with a .933 OPS in April, but only started six of the team's 20 games. Twins manager Billy Gardner began to give Salas more playing time, even stating him 19 consecutive games at one point in May. Salas continued to produce, and finished the year batting .300 with nine home runs and 41 RBI over 120 games. He finished eighth place in AL Rookie of the Year voting.

Minnesota opened 1986 with Salas as their primary catcher, but he wasn't able to duplicate his rookie year success. Salas hit .233 with eight home runs, and eventually lost a lot of his playing time back to Laudner. The duo began 1987 splitting starts fairly equally. Salas began to produce offensively again, and was batting .378 until getting traded to the New York Yankees for Joe Niekro on June 6th. Niekro failed to produce, posting a 6.26 ERA over 18 starts for Minnesota. Despite this, the Twins still wound up winning the World Series that fall.

Salas also struggled with his new team, batting .200 in 50 games for the Yankees. He also played for the Chicago White Sox (1988), Cleveland Indians (1989) and Detroit Tigers (1990-91). Salas became good friends with White Sox teammate Ozzie Guillen during his lone season in Chicago. Their friendship led to Guillen employing Salas as a bullpen catcher for most of his managerial tenure with the White Sox in the 2000's.

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