Marco Scutaro

From a very young age, he never took anything for granted. He always had to fight to open the doors to success. And he did everything to compensate for the effort his mother made since he was a child, when she accompanied him on a trip of more than an hour from his native San Felipe to the city of Barquisimeto so he could practice his favorite sport: baseball.

Marco Scutaro Hernández, born October 30, 1975, always had to go the extra mile to get noticed. From his beginnings in his native San Felipe, Yaracuy state, to his mature years in the major leagues.

Scutaro played the last two categories of Little League Baseball, at 14 years old, in Barquisimeto, a city 46 miles from San Felipe.

“I went to Barquisimeto, where the competition was a little better. I never saw myself with much of a chance, but something told me to keep training, to see what happened,” he recalled. “And well, from that time on, the idea (of playing professionally) began to creep into me. Everything I did, I did it for my mother.”1

Nélida Hernández, a housewife of Spanish origin, and Donato Scutaro, barber and an an Italian immigrant, had four children, two girls (Maribel and Kathy) and two boys (Piero and Marco), Marco being the youngest of all.

In 1993, at the age of 18, Marco suffered the loss of his mother from brain cancer, and before saying goodbye to her he made a promise to her that he would be a professional baseball player.

“I promised her. She was very sick,” he said. “I promised her when she was in bed, about to die, and that was my inspiration.”

His mother always supported him in his attempt to sign, and although she was unable to see her son fulfill his dream, she showed him the way. Her routine on school days was to pick him up at school, serve him lunch, and then take him to the San Felipe bus station so he could travel to Barquisimeto to practice, returning later to pick him up except on game days, when he stayed in Barquisimeto. On one occasion he had to sleep in the ballpark because he finished late and couldn’t find transportation back.2

The sacrifices he made to achieve his goal were many, especially because of the many setbacks he had.

For a month he traveled to Maracay to practice at the New York Yankees academy, returning to his home in San Felipe on the weekends. There he met Tony Armas, Jr., as well as other players who signed with the organization, such as René Pinto, Víctor Valencia, and Jaime Torres.

“After a month, the boss arrived who was going to see all the players. It was an academy with many players,” Scutaro recalled. “They start to play the game and I wasn’t playing. It was at the Tigres de Aragua stadium (José Pérez Colmenares). The bosses get behind home plate and start checking everyone. I was waiting for my opportunity, warming up.”

Scutaro was left alone in the dugout. Everyone had seen action except him.

“And those people said, ‘This is the last pitch, the last batter.’ I turned around, my tears came out, I took off my shirt, left it there and went to San Felipe,” he said. “Do you know what it is to be a month in an academy and not even be looked at?” Despite being disheartened, he did not lower his head. He kept insisting and continued attending tryouts.

“Once I asked a scout from Colorado to sign me for free and he said no,” he said. “On another occasion, a friend from San Felipe who had signed with Oakland lent me his uniform, to see if they would notice me, and I went to a tryout in Puerto Cabello. The tryout ended and I asked if they were not going to check me out, and the scout told me that they did not check released players. Since he saw me in the Oakland uniform, he thought I was released. I couldn’t hit a thing.”

Scutaro’s luck changed when he approached the academy of former Venezuelan major leaguer Luis Aponte, who played with the Boston Red Sox (1980-1983) and the Cleveland Indians (1984).

“He didn’t invite me, I went to ask him for permission to see if he would let me practice. I told him that he didn’t have to pay for my lodging or food. That what I wanted was to practice to get into shape. And that’s how the adventure began.”3

With the support of his sister Kathy, he was in Barquisimeto at the academy of Aponte, who was a scout for Cleveland.

Two weeks after Scutaro’s arrival, the head of scouts for Latin America, Winston “Chilote” Llenas, made an appearance and was the first to notice the future infielder’s abilities.

“He saw me catching groundballs and it seems that I caught his attention. He approached me while I was catching groundballs and asked me where I was from,” he said. “It seems that he told Luis Aponte to leave me for the next show, which was months later in Puerto La Cruz. They left me for the next show and I continued there training and running on my own.”4

And it was in Puerto La Cruz that Scutaro finally managed to capture the attention of the Cleveland scouts at the showcase.

“You know when they are watching you and I looked like the circus monkey. I did everything so that they would see me, because I was already going on 18 years old,” he recalled. “I was 17, and I had already gone through too many tryouts and I said, after this, if nothing comes out, I don’t know what I was going to do, but I said, ‘This is the chance.’ And well, the signing happened, thank God.”5

Finally, on July 26, 1994, Scutaro fulfilled the promise he made to his mother on her deathbed and became a professional baseball player with the Cleveland Indians.

“Like everyone who pursues that dream, it was quite difficult. In my case, I would dare to say that it was a little more difficult than usual, because I was not a player with excellent conditions. It cost me a lot. I went to countless tryouts and they never said anything to me. They didn’t even look at me,” he acknowledged. “At that time, the last thing I thought about was a bonus. What I wanted was to sign and they gave me $3,500.”6

Scutaro began his professional career in 1995 in the Venezuelan Winter League with Caribes de Oriente, a club managed by Aponte. But he took his first steps in the United States in 1996 with Columbus of the Class-A Sally League, standing out for his ability to hit by hitting 25 extra-base hits, including 10 home runs, with 66 runs scored and 45 RBIs in 85 games.

“When I played in Columbus, Georgia, I didn’t know anything about anything. What I knew was how to play and it was the easiest thing. You were impressed with everything, because you come from your culture, from your town, and playing baseball was the easiest thing, but simple things, like ordering food, communicating, even when the coaches tried to teach you something, you didn’t understand. You just said, ‘Yes, yes.’”7 

The following season, 1997, he again excelled with the bat with Kinston of the high-A Carolina League and hit 10 home runs among his 103 hits in 97 games. That earned him a 21-game stint with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons.

“In those years, being invited to spring training or playing in Triple A was very difficult, because they had a very good team,” said the then rookie, at a time when the Indians had his idol, Omar Vizquel, in their infield, as well as Jim Thome, Carlos Baerga, Tony Fernández, and Matt Williams.8

In 1998 Scutaro was a Double-A  Eastern League all-star after hitting .316 with 27 doubles, 11 home runs, and 62 RBIs with the Akron Aeros. He finished with another internship in Triple A, a circuit in which he played full-time in 1999 with the Bisons until August 30, 2000, when he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers along with Richie Sexson, Kane Davis, and Paul Rigdon for Jason Bere, Bob Wickman, and Steve Woodard.

“There were about three games left to finish the season, I was in Buffalo, New York, and I was already preparing to return to Venezuela, and it turns out that I had to travel from Buffalo to Indianapolis, the Triple-A branch of Milwaukee, with the luck that that team went to the playoffs and we won everything,” said Scutaro. “At that time, there was a World Series, which was the champion of the International League, in Triple A, with the winner of the Pacific Coast Leagur, and it was played in Las Vegas.”9

In 2001 Scutaro played again in Triple A, with the Indianapolis Indians, and batted .295 with 87 runs scored, 43 extra-base hits, and 50 RBIs in 132 games. Not only was he not considered for promotion to the major leagues, but in April 2002 he was placed on waivers by the Brewers and was taken on April 5 by the New York Mets.

“Milwaukee put me on waivers and I said, ‘If I didn’t make it to the major leagues with Milwaukee, here on this team with (Roberto) Alomar at second base and (Rey) Ordóñez at shortstop, even less so here (with the Mets).’”10

And far from lowering his head, Scutaro found a large group of Venezuelans who made him feel at home immediately, including one who helped him play a position that would be key in his future.

“In Triple A I remember that there was a group of Venezuelans who had a great time. There was (Jorge) Velandia, Felipe Lira, ‘Manacho’ (Oscar Henríquez), and (Carlos) ‘El Tapón’ Hernández,” he recalled. “I started to fight and things started to go really well for me. There they started to put me to play in various positions and I thank Velandia a lot, because he taught me to play shortstop. He was very intelligent to play shortstop. With Cleveland I practically played second and third base, but they never put me to play shortstop.”11

Scutaro continued to hit in Triple A in 2002, this time with the Norfolk Tides, a club with which he had a .319 average, with 20 doubles, 7 home runs, 39 runs scored, and 25 RBIs, before receiving the long-awaited call to the major leagues.

“After more than seven years of fighting in the minor leagues, I was always waiting for that day. I remember, it was a Sunday, entering the apartment the phone rang. … My wife, Marinés, always picked up, because they always called her from her home in Venezuela. When she picked up the phone I saw her face, as if shocked. I said to her, ‘What happened?’ She said, ‘It’s the manager.’”12

Bobby Floyd, his manager in Norfolk, was on the phone to inform him that he had to report to the Mets. His wife, Marinés García, whom he married that same year, was anxious to know the reason for that call.

“I knew there could be two pieces of news, one bad or one good, but I wasn’t thinking about that, because I was playing well. When that man said those magic words, my heart started racing, and Marinés noticed, because she was looking at me. That’s when the screaming and crying started.”13

At 26 years old, Scutaro traveled to Cincinnati on July 20 to join the Mets in the series against the Reds and had his first contact with his new manager, Bobby Valentine, in the hotel bar, where he tried to start a conversation with him.

“What are you doing here?” Valentine asked him, when the rookie insisted on approaching him.

“They just brought me up,”  replied Scutaro, who had been called up to replace the injured Joe McEwing.14

On July 21 he made his debut at Cinergy Field in Cincinnati as a defensive replacement at second base, entering the lineup for first baseman Mo Vaughn. In his only at-bat, in the ninth inning against Danny Graves, he flied out to left field in the Mets’ 9-1 loss to the Reds.

The next day in New York, he got his first hit, against the Montreal Expos, a pinch-hit triple in the seventh inning that broke a two-run tie and gave the Mets a 5-2 victory.

The 23,655 people present at Shea Stadium chanted his name after his hit off pitcher Tomo Ohka.

“It’s a great feeling. There’s no explanation for the feeling,” Scutaro said. “I couldn’t ask for anything better.”15

After his call-up, Scutaro, who was an All-Star in the International League that year, played 27 games with the Mets, then 48 more in 2003 before being claimed on waivers by the Oakland Athletics on October 9, 2003.

The Venezuelan knew that with his new team he would start another season in Triple A, but a shoulder injury that took second baseman Mark Ellis out for the season opened the doors to a starting role in Oakland.

“That year (2004) I was going back to Triple A. When I got to spring training they already had their team made and you know what’s coming when they give you that very high (uniform) number,” said Scutaro. “But I think that God’s timing is perfect, and The Man kind of looked down. …”16

Scutaro played a full season in the major leagues for the first time and in 137 games, 123 of them at second base, he had respectable numbers: .273 batting average with 32 doubles, one triple, 7 home runs, 50 runs scored, and 43 RBIs. But the numbers did not guarantee him a place on the team in the 2005 season.

“My surprise is that after that full year, the following year they were going to send me to Triple A. From the first day of training, a month and a half before the start of the season, they told me that I possibly would not make the team, for X reasons, because I did not take walks, for this, for that. … Imagine six weeks getting up early, always thinking about that, and the hardest thing of all is that I knew I could play, because they had given me the chance and I proved it to them. But these are decisions that you cannot control and that is the most frustrating thing about all this.”17

Scutaro ended up making the team as a utility player and played in 118 games, 81 of them at shortstop and 30 at second base, also playing in the outfield.

In the winter of 2006, Scutaro lived two memorable moments in his career, winning the Caribbean Series with Leones del Caracas and later representing Venezuela in the first World Baseball Classic, where he had the opportunity to play with his childhood idol.

“Omar Vizquel was my idol, the one I always looked up to and wanted to imitate. When I was in the minor leagues, in Cleveland, the first thing I did was go to the major-league stadium to watch him play.”18

Scutaro played in the first of his three World Baseball Classics in 2006, also participating in the 2009 and 2013 editions.

After playing for his country, Scutaro returned to the A’s to fill the same utility role for the 2006 season, in which he played his first postseason, and 2007, his last in Oakland before being traded to the Toronto Blue Jays on November 18, 2007, for Kristian Bell and Graham Godfrey.

“Toronto is an organization that I loved playing for and I have to thank them for giving me the opportunity to play every day. The year I came (2008) I was in the utility role, but the following year they gave me the opportunity to play every day for that organization.”19

With John Gibbons as his manager, Scutaro began the 2008 season playing at third base, replacing the injured Scott Rolen, and then continued playing every position in the infield and outfield for a then-career-high 145 games.

The following season, in 2009, Cito Gaston, who had replaced Gibbons as manager in July 2008, gave him the starting shortstop job, so he was able to take advantage of the lessons he had from Jorge Velandia in his years in the minor leagues with the Mets to show that he was an everyday player and to get rid of the utility label that he had had since he went up to the major leagues.

“That year was key for me. They gave me the chance to play and it is totally different when you get to the stadium and you know that you are going to be in the lineup. You know that if you don’t get a hit, tomorrow you are going to have another chance.”20

As a starting shortstop, he made only 10 errors in 143 games, leaving personal bests so far in the offense, with averages of .282/.379/.409, 100 runs scored, 162 hits, 35 doubles, 12 home runs, 60 RBIs, 235 total bases, 14 stolen bases, and 90 walks, which allowed him to reach free agency as a coveted player.

On December 4, 2009, Scutaro signed a two-year, $12.5 million contract, with an option for a third year, to be the starting shortstop for the Boston Red Sox.

“Thanks to the opportunity that Toronto gave me, because they let me play, I was a free agent at the perfect time. Boston needed a shortstop, there were negotiations with other organizations, and the reason I wanted to play for that team was because we were going to have a chance to win.”21

In his first year he set new personal bests in games (150), at-bats (632), hits (174) and doubles (38), while in 2011 he hit .299 in 113 games, seeing his performance diminished by discomfort in his right shoulder.

Despite coinciding in the lineup with Hall of Famers like David Ortiz and Adrian Beltre, as well as great players like Dustin Pedroia, Victor Martinez, and Kevin Youkilis, Scutaro was not able to taste a postseason in Boston.

“Unfortunately, in the years I was there, as a team we did not win, but I have always said that in Boston, when you win, it must be very, very good, and when you lose it is very, very ugly, because of the fans,” he said. “Unfortunately, it was not my best experience playing there as a team, because we could not win in a big market.”22

The Red Sox picked up Scutaro’s option for a third season in 2012, but on January 21 he was traded to the Colorado Rockies for pitcher Clayton Mortensen.

After a slow start to the season in Colorado, Scutaro was regaining his offensive rhythm, acting primarily as a second baseman, but before the trade deadline on July 27, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Charlie Culberson and cash, making an immediate impact in the Bay Area.

In just 61 games he hit .362, with 40 runs scored, 20 extra-base hits, and 44 RBIs, with a career-high of seven RBIs in a game, thanks to a grand slam on August 8 against the Cardinals in St. Louis. His contribution was key to the Giants capturing the National League West Division, with an eight-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Although Scutaro barely hit .150 (3-20) in the Division Series, the Giants defeated the Cincinnati Reds in five games to advance to the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, whom he once again destroyed offensively.

Scutaro had a dream Championship Series, despite suffering a spectacular collision at second base with Matt Holliday in a double play that took him out of action in the second game, and that in the future would mark his destiny.

But the adrenaline kept him in the lineup and his bat heated up, taking home the series MVP title by batting .500 (14-for-28), with six runs scored, three doubles, and four RBIs, helping the Giants return to their second World Series in three years by beating the Cardinals in seven games, after being down in the series 1-3, being the main protagonist with an iconic image before capturing the 27th out that took them to the fall classic, opening his arms savoring the rain falling at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

“At that moment, what I did was open my arms, look up, and thank God. That was a blessing,” he said. “It was an unforgettable experience and memory that I will carry with me until the last day of my life. I remember exactly the last out (a fly ball by Holliday to second base), when it was raining, I grabbed the ball and hid it in my pocket, celebrating with the boys on the infield, and I clearly remember someone from Major League Baseball coming up to me and whispering in my ear, you were the MVP. You can imagine that emotion inside.”23

In the World Series, against the Detroit Tigers, Scutaro once again played the hero in the four-game sweep. In Game One, he went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and in Game Four he also had two singles, including the hit that broke a tie in the 10th inning and gave the Giants a 4-3 victory at Comerica Park to win his long-awaited World Series ring.

“In that at-bat, I was thinking about bringing in that run, because it was so cold. And I wanted to finish that game, because the next day it was going to be colder and Verlander was going to pitch,” he said of his at-bat against Phil Coke with Ryan Theriot running on second base that ended up leading to the World Series title.24

“It was something inexplicable, because it was something you had dreamed of for so many years, winning a World Series, and at the same time you feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders, because you achieved your goal. From then on, what comes next is celebrating.”25

On December 7, 2012, Scutaro signed a new three-year, $20 million contract with the Giants and started the 2013 campaign in full force, hitting .316/.367/.400 with 2 home runs, 22 runs batted in, and 37 runs scored in the first half, earning his only All-Star selection, though he didn’t get into the game.

On June 11 he was hit by Tony Watson and suffered an injury against the Pirates. He played on through September 15, batting .297, but and underwent surgery on September 27 that finished his season.26

And although in 2013 he was able to play without any major physical problems, in 2014 “the drama began” due to his back problems, caused mainly by a collision with Matt Holliday on October 15, 2012, in the second game of the NLCS against the Cardinals.

“Literally what I felt was that someone grabbed my leg and pulled it away from my hip. I had a deep pain between my groin and my hip. I think I got off cheap at that moment, I don’t know how I didn’t break my knee or ankle. I was able to keep playing, but two innings later I felt a pain in a nerve in my leg and asked to be taken out. I think that that collision brought us closer as a team, because they saw the desire I had to keep playing. It was something beneficial for the team, but in the long run it wasn’t for me,” he said about his clash with Holliday.27

“A kind of spur formed between two discs in my spine, because I kept playing without fully healing. I spent a long time avoiding surgery.”

At the end of the 2013 season, he was already feeling discomfort in his hip, and in 2014 the pain was so intense that he received five cortisone injections in a span of four weeks.

Scutaro began the season on the disabled list and was only able to briefly return to the field in July, when he played the last five games of his career.

“Months went by, I was trying to come back and come back, and it was hard. I left my house with the intention of competing and when I got to the stadium and swung, I felt that pain and it turned me off. I was fighting with that until one day I got to the stadium and said, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore, unfortunately.’ I hid in the bathroom, shed a couple of tears, and that was the day I accepted that I couldn’t do it anymore. After that, I kept trying, but deep down I knew I couldn’t. After I stopped playing, it was worse. I couldn’t even tie my shoes and my wife had to put my socks on. I told her to call the doctor so they could operate on me.”28

On December 19, 2014, Scutaro underwent back surgery and on January 28, 2015, the Giants released him, but on June 17, he was re-signed symbolically, collecting the $6 million remaining on his previous contract, so that he could officially retire as a member of the organization, using its facilities and training staff for his rehabilitation “in hopes of maintaining a quality of life and being pain-free with his family.”29

After his retirement, Scutaro has remained away from baseball, living in Weston, Florida, with his wife, Marinés, and their three children, María Verónica (born 2002), María Valeria (2005), and Marco (2011), enjoying other passions such as horseback riding and hunting.

“I am grateful to God for the career he gave me,” said Scutaro, a man who was synonymous with perseverance to play 13 seasons in the majors when no one wanted to sign him for free. “When you set a dream and go for it, the work, perseverance and dedication will pay dividends later. Everything you do in this life requires sacrifice, not everything will come easy, and my advice is to work harder than everyone else and do things with love, because at the end of the day, if your dream doesn’t come true, you can look in the mirror and sleep peacefully because you gave it your best.”30

Last revised: January 31, 2026

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted baseball-reference.com, MLB.com, espn.com, nytimes.com, and sfchronicle.com.

Photo credit: Marco Scutaro, Getty Images.

Notes

1 “Talk Beisbol. Episodio 4- Marco Scutaro Pt 1,” May 13, 2020.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqWKdr2JuDI&t=2192s. All direct quotations attributed to Marco Scutaro come from this interview unless otherwise noted.

2 He recalled, “Once I even had to sleep in the Barquisimeto stadium. I remember that time the security man took out a piece of cardboard and I had to lie down where they served the beers, because we left the stadium too late. We had to stay in the stadium.”

3 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro T1-EP 3: Marco Scutaro y sus barajitas,” January 23, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXD2yoUxsbE.

4 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

5 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

6 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

7 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

8 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

9 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

10 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

11 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

12 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

13 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

14 Michael Morrissey, “New Met Scutaro calls on Bobby V.,” New York Post. July 20, 2002. https://nypost.com/2002/07/20/new-met-scaturo-calls-on-bobby-v/.

15 Associated Press, “Scutaro an Immediate Hit,” Middletown (New York) Times Herald-Record, July 23, 2002. https://www.recordonline.com/story/sports/2002/07/23/scutaro-immediate-hit/51167442007/.

16 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

17 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

18 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

19 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

20 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

21 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

22 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”

23 Interview with the author, October 22, 2022.

24 Interview with the author.

25 Interview with the author.

26 Alex Espinoza, “Banged-up Scutaro to sit out remainder of season,” MLB.com, September 24, 2013. https://www.mlb.com/news/giants-infielder-marco-scutaro-to-sit-out-remainder-of-season/c-61618578

27 Interview with the author.

28 Interview with the author.

29 John Shea, “Marco Scutaro Re-Signs with Giants – Not to Play, Though.” San Francisco Chronicle, June 17, 2015. https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Marco-Scutaro-re-signs-with-Giants-more-of-a-6333473.php.

30 “Las Barajitas de Luis. Marco Scutaro.”