Pedro López

Discovered in the Dominican Republic by Chicago White Sox scout Denny Gonzalez, 16-year-old infielder Pedro Michel López signed as an amateur free agent in 2000. He was born in Moca, Dominican Republic, on April 28, 1984, and attended high school there. A prospect touted for his defensive prowess, he played in the major leagues for only 16 games, never quite reaching his potential but finding his place in the game as a manager.

After signing with the White Sox, López was assigned to the Arizona League White Sox in 2001. The team was managed by Jerry Hairston Sr., who spent all but 51 games of his 14-year major-league career with Chicago’s Southside team.

López appeared in 50 games in 2001, splitting time between third base, second base, and shortstop. He finished his first rookie-league season at .312/.359/.412 with one home run and 19 RBIs, and for 2002 was assigned to his second rookie-league team, the Bristol White Sox of the Appalachian League.

In Bristol, he played in 63 games; a few at shortstop. He batted a consistent .319/.370/.362, nearly doubled his RBI tally from the previous year with 35, and ranked third in the Appalachian League in hits. He stole 22 bases in 30 attempts and finished the season as the number-19 prospect in the White Sox system. López received his first invitation to major-league spring training in 2003, and he continued to rise through the White Sox system that year with another promotion, this time to the Kannapolis Intimidators of the Low-A South Atlantic League.

In Kannapolis, López played more than 100 games in a season for the first time, again primarily at second base, with time at shortstop and third. While his batting numbers were down (.264/.314/.323 with 33 RBIs), he did lead the team in doubles (23), stolen bases (24), and sacrifice hits (16). Near the end of the season, López was promoted again, to the High-A Winston-Salem Warthogs of the Carolina League. He spent four games there and began the 2004 season with the Warthogs.

López spent most of the season in Winston-Salem, penciled into 104 games at shortstop. With a slash line of .288/.328/.347 with 35 RBIs and 4 home runs (his first since the Arizona Rookie League), he finished out the year with the Birmingham Barons of the Double-A Southern League. At that time, Baseball America rated López as the best defensive infielder in the White Sox organization. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén agreed: “From the first day I saw Pedro catching the ball, to me, he was the best in the organization defensively.”1

López’s stay in Birmingham was brief. He made the White Sox’ 40-man roster in 2005 and began the season with Chicago’s Triple-A team, the Charlotte Knights, again splitting time between shortstop and second base. After only a month in Charlotte, López was called up to the White Sox. He debuted at age 21 on May 1, 2005, at US Cellular Field in Chicago to fill in for shortstop Willie Harris, who was on bereavement leave. López had four at-bats and got his first major-league hit in the sixth inning. He singled to left field off Wil Ledezma and drove in Chris Widger. Later in the inning he was driven in by Carl Everett, contributing to an 8-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers. In his second game for the White Sox on May 8, he played second base; his one hit turned out to drive in the game-winning RBI in a 5-4 victory over the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Less than two months into the season, the White Sox were 24-7, tying the record for their best 31-game start since the Black Sox season of 1919. “I don’t want to say it’s good, but they’re playing good baseball,” Guillén said. “They stick up for each other and carry each other. They have good pitching and play the way you’re supposed to play, [so] you get good results. Tying a record doesn’t mean anything. It’s nice to be part of it, but I don’t look at that. I look forward to the next game.”2

Despite his contributions in the May 8 game, López was sent back to Triple A when Harris returned. He struggled in Charlotte (.198/.226/.278) and after about a month, was sent back down to Double-A Birmingham, where he hit .238/.287/.314 in 68 games. He was not selected for the playoff roster as the White Sox began their journey to winning the 2005 World Series.

While not on the World Series team, López did receive a championship ring. Some, including López himself, questioned whether he should have, even though he was on the 40-man roster.

“Why shouldn’t he have gotten one?” Guillén later said. “We have secretaries who never played one inning that have one. That one or two games he helped us win could have been the difference between us being in the playoffs or not. Pedro was a good player to be around. He didn’t say much. He was like a lot of guys on that team who did little things to make it easy for me.”3

At the end of the 2005 season, López was selected to play for the Peoria Saguaros of the Arizona Fall League, where in six games he hit .375/.400/.500. That performance enabled him to start the 2006 season back in Charlotte (.274/.320/.404 with 5 home runs and 24 RBIs), though he also spent about half of the season in Birmingham (.322/.358/.454 with another 5 home runs and 34 RBIs).

That winter López honed his skills with Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Winter League, then headed back to Triple-A Charlotte to start the 2007 season. Having already been dropped from Chicago’s 40-man roster, on May 20 he was released by the White Sox. The next day he was picked up off waivers by the Cincinnati Reds and sent to the Triple-A Louisville Bats.

After 34 games in Louisville, batting an impressive .339/.396/.427, López made his Reds debut on July 14. In a 2-1 loss to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, he started at shortstop and went 0-for-3 against future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine. On July 25 against the Milwaukee Brewers in Cincinnati, López suffered a broken jaw when he was hit by a pitch from Matt Wise. He was able to return to the team on September 21 as a pinch-runner against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park and rejoined the starting lineup on September 27 at home against the Houston Astros.

López played in 14 games for Cincinnati, including a game against the Atlanta Braves on July 18 in which he went 3-for-6, including a double, off another future Hall of Famer, John Smoltz. His 1-for-4 appearance on September 30, 2007, at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati was his last game played in the major leagues. With a season slash line of .178/.213/.222, no home runs, and no RBIs, he was released by the Reds. On October 26 he was selected off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Still only 23 years old, López spent another offseason with Estrellas of the Dominican Winter League, finishing at .271/.350/.295 with 18 RBIs. He did not make the Blue Jays’ major-league roster coming out of spring training in 2008; he spent the entire year with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, finishing at .236/.306/.295 with 2 home runs and 27 RBIs. At the end of the season, López was granted free agency, and after spending another winter with Estrellas (.286/.432/.321), he signed a minor-league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on January 7, 2009.

The 2009 season was another one spent in the minors for López, with 42 games for the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians (.275/.316/.310), and 53 games with the Double-A Altoona Curve (.263/.311/.337). After another winter season with Estrellas, López signed with the Washington Nationals on January 13, 2010. After another season (.216/.293/.304 in 58 games) at Triple-A Syracuse (which had switched its affiliation from Toronto to Washington), and 24 games with the Double-A Harrisburg Senators (.174/.206/.203), López was granted free agency for the final time in November 2010.

He then spent the next two winters with Leones del Escogido of the Dominican Winter League (.206/.277/.260 in 2010-2011, and .160/.276/.240 in 2011-2012). In 2012 López joined the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Independent Atlantic League, batting .272/.404/.296 in 41 games. He played part-time for Escogido the next three winters, appearing in 29 games over three seasons.

In 2015 López ventured north of the border, playing 85 games for Aigles de Trois-Rivières of the Canadian-American Association. There he put up some of the better numbers of his career at .314/.388/.345 with one home run and 39 RBIs. He returned to Escogido in 2015-2016 and played with the team in the Caribbean Series in February 2016. The Dominican team finished fifth out of five teams in the series with zero wins, while López had four hits in the series.

The 2016 season found López in the Mexican League, playing for Olmecas de Tabasco and again batting over .300 (.307/.372/.349 with 18 RBIs). His last two seasons of professional baseball were spent with the Escogido team, for whom he played 40 games in 2016-2017 and 24 games in 2017-2018. At age 33, his playing career had come to an end. Overall, he had 52 at-bats with a .192 average, no home runs, and 2 RBIs in the majors.

One thing that remained from López’s career, besides his memories, was his 2005 World Series ring. A decade after López got it, a reporter asked the retired player about it. “It’s a secret where I keep it stored – I’m serious,” López told the reporter. “I don’t want anybody to know so I tell nobody. People in the Dominican can get crazy. They might try to steal it. I’ve never worn my ring out anywhere.” López had been surprised to receive the ring, given that he played in only two games for the White Sox that season. He was grateful, however. “Everybody believed in me and always told me, ‘You can play,’ López said. “I remember everything about it. It was a dream. It was unbelievable. I love you, Chicago, and what you did for me.”4

A year later, however, López sold the ring for $19,550 at an auction featuring items from the estate of White Sox legend Minnie Miñoso. The 14-carat-gold ring with 95 diamonds was the highest-selling item in the auction, with a portion of the proceeds going to Chicago White Sox Charities.5

With López’s playing career over, he turned his attention to managing. In the 2017-18 Dominican Classic, he won Manager of the Year when he led Gigantes del Cibao to a first-place finish and a 29-21 record. The next year, he was bench coach for the Estrellas Orientales team that won the 2018-19 championship.

López then joined the Dominican team as a strategist, helping lead them to a slot in the 2019 Pan American Games in a qualifying event in Brazil. “We will go for something big, we are working to reach a good place,” López said. “I know that this event is of greater magnitude than in Brazil, but we will strive to be among the first positions on the podium.”6

While the Dominican Republic did not medal in baseball in the PanAm Games, the team finished fifth out of eight, bettering their performance in the Caribbean Series. For the 2019-20 season, he was named manager of Tigres del Licey, leading them to a 27-23 record.

In 2022 López he came back to Leones del Escogido as manager. “I love baseball in the Dominican Republic,” López told Dominican Today. “It is the reason why I keep coming because I really tell you, from my heart, of all the years that I have been in baseball, I have been around 30-odd years, and I tell you with all honesty, this has been the best baseball that I have been part of and I enjoy it, with the ups and downs.”7

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Almanac.com, Baseball-Reference.com, Milb.com, NBCsports.com, and StatsCrew.com

Notes

1 Jim Margalus, “Terrerobytes: A 2005 White Sox Story Seldom Told,” southsidesox.com, July 20, 2015, accessed November 23, 2024. https://www.southsidesox.com/2015/7/20/9002149/terrerobytes-a-2005-white-sox-story-seldom-told.

2 Mark Gonzales, “Somber Streak,” ChicagoTribune.com, May 9, 2005, accessed November 23, 2024. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2005/05/09/somber-streak/.

3 Margalus.

4 David Haugh, “Forgotten 2005 Champion Grateful for Ringing Endorsement from White Sox,” ChicagoTribune.com, July 18, 2015, accessed November 23, 2024. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2015/07/18/forgotten-2005-champion-grateful-for-ringing-endorsement-from-white-sox/.

5 Danny Ecker, “Sox 2005 World Series Ring Sells for Nearly $20K,” ChicagoBusiness.com, September 19, 2016, accessed November 23, 2024. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20160919/BLOGS04/160919846/white-sox-2005-world-series-ring-sells-for-nearly-20k.

6 “Dominican Baseball Will Go to Panama with a Lot of Talent,” DominicanToday.com, July 20, 2019, accessed November 23, 2024. https://dominicantoday.com/dr/sports/2019/07/20/dominican-baseball-will-go-to-panama-with-a-lot-of-talent/.

7 “Pedro López: I Keep Coming Back to the DR Because This Is the Best Baseball,” DominicanToday.com, October 7, 2022, accessed November 23, 2024. https://dominicantoday.com/dr/local/2022/10/07/pedro-lopez-i-keep-coming-back-to-the-dr-because-this-is-the-best-baseball/.