Chris Gimenez

Christopher Paul Gimenez was born on December 27, 1982 in Gilroy, California.

He was a 19th round pick of the Cleveland Indians in the 2004 MLB Draft. A college outfielder desperate to earn minor league playing time as a lower draft pick, Gimenez began to work all around the diamond. He played a lot of corner infield and corner outfield during his early years in the minors, adding reps as a catcher in 2006. Gimenez made his Major League debut for the Indians on June 3, 2009. Cleveland primarily used him at first base and left field during his rookie season, but he did catch eight games as well.

Gimenez was designated for assignment following the 2010 season. This would become a normal occurrence for him. He spent most of his career signing minor league contracts, getting called up when that team needed a third catcher or extra bench bat, only to get DFA'd after a few weeks or months. Gimenez had three separate stints with Cleveland, two with the Texas Rangers, while also playing for the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Rays. All of this came before signing a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins ahead of the 2017 season, where Gimenez made the team out of camp.

He played in a career high 74 games for Minnesota in 2017, posting a strong .350 on-base percentage while serving as the primary backup catcher for Jason Castro. Gimenez also spent a little time at first base, third base, left field, and was the Twins designated mop up reliever with six appearances on the mound.

The Chicago Cubs signed Gimenez to a minor league contract for the 2018 season. He played 12 games for the Cubs, and was traded back to Minnesota for Bobby Wilson in a backup catcher swap. With the Twins, he played 13 more games and retired when the season concluded.

After retiring, Gimenez spent 2019 as the Game Planning Coordinator for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He left the team after one season, and joined SiriusXM's MLB Network Radio. For the station, he currently co-hosts "Loud Outs" alongside Ryan Spilborghs, C.J. Nitkowski and Kevin Frandsen. 

• Gimenez is technically the most recent pitcher in Twins history to hit a home run
  • He pitched the bottom of the eighth in an 18-4 blowout loss against the Texas Rangers, then homered in the top of the ninth while batting as the pitcher after Minnesota lost their DH slot due to some of the late game subs they had made