Jordany Valdespin: Former Met With Club Record Five Straight Pinch Hits (2012 - 2013)

Jordany V. Valdespin was born December 23rd 1987 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. The six foot left hand hitter was signed by the New York Mets in 2007. 

He began as a second baseman & hit well through the ranks ofthe minors. 

In 2009 he hit five HRs 7 batted .279 in just 18 games at A ball Brooklyn. He was at St. Lucie the next season, moving up to AA Binghamton.

In 2011 he stole 33 bases (6th in the Eastern league) while batting .297 & hitting 15 HRs at AA Binghamton. He was promoted to AAA Buffalo toward the end of the season showing promise at the plate.

But on the field he was terrible, making 35 errors getting switched to the outfield for 2012. After 17 games he was batting .276 when he was called up after Ronny Cedeno got injured.

Valdespin debuted on April 23rd as a pinch hitter at Citi Field going 0-1 against the San Francisco Giants. On May 7th with the score tied at 2-2 against the Phillies at Citizen's Bank Park, he hit a dramatic three run HR off Jonathan Papelbon, winning the game 5-2. 

It was his first career HR & a big one. Overall he was struggeling, as he was hitting just .091 at the start of June after 16 games.

In June he drove in two runs in the June 10th subway series match up although the Mets lost 5-4. In his next game he drove in four runs at Tampa in a 11-2 win over the Rays. In July he hit brought his average up to .277, hitting five HRs and was seeing more playing time.

On July 24, he broke a Mets franchise record by hitting his fifth pinch-hit home run of the season, off of Ryan Mattheus of the Washington Nationals. In August he began to slump off hitting just one more HR for the rest of the season.

He finished up batting .241 with 8 HRs nine doubles 26 RBIs ten stolen bases & a .286 on base %. In the outfield he made no errors posting a perfect fielding %, making one assist.

In 2014 he was penciled in as a centerfield platoon with Colin Cowgill. On April 24th he hit the first Mets walk off grand slam since Kevin McReynolds did it back in 1991.

His down fall began in May when he hit a HR against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium & celebrated while the Mets were down four runs. 



This did not go over well with his team, manager, fans or the opposing team. The next day he was put in as a pinch hitter & was hit by a pitch. The scenario made it look like manager Terry Collins put him in there, to teach him a lesson.

He struggled at the plate batting just .188 & was sent down to AAA Las Vegas. At that point he referred to Collins with a curse word, demanding to be put on the DL. 

In August he was suspended for 50 games for using a performance enhancing drug. At the end of the season he was non tendered by the Mets.

He signed on with the Miami Marlins for 2014 & played just 52 games hitting .214. In 2015 he played just two games for Miami at the big league level. He then went on play in the Mexican League through 2017.