César Izturis

Venezuela is known for producing oil, coffee, cocoa – and shortstops. Joining a long tradition of campocortos venezolanos who include Ozzie Guillen, Luis Aparicio, and Omar Vizquel (to whom he is often compared), César Izturis quickly made a name for himself in the majors. During his career, which spanned 13 seasons (2001-2013) and saw him play in 1,310 major-league games, the right-handed switch-hitter was primarily known for his solid glove. He received the Gold Glove Award in 2004 and was named to the National League All-Star team in 2005.

César David Izturis was born on February 10, 1980, in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, the third of six sons. One of his brothers, Maicer Izturis – born only seven months after Cesar – played in 11 big-league seasons, debuting with Montreal in 2004.

Their father, also named Cesar, earned a living working at the local farmers’ market in the Cerrito Blanco section of Barquisimeto and transporting mangoes and “pineapples and tomatoes and whatever else had ripened” from open market to open market in his 1954 Chevy pickup truck, often on the road for three or four days at a time. Maicer arrived unexpectedly, brought home in the pickup truck, “a 2-month-old boy, born along his regular route, by a woman he’d met who was not his wife.”1 Maicer was welcomed, by the elder Cesar’s wife, Elidez, who “managed the emotional strain of the unexpected arrival, the third of what would become six sons.”2 It was a marriage that endured. In 2005 both parents traveled together to Southern California to visit the two major leaguers.

Cesar, the father, had been a baseball fan himself, but it was always a struggle to provide for the family. “My kids,” he said, “were always the worst-dressed kids.” They had to borrow gloves from others when they played ball, but they were clearly exceptionally talented and not only played in local leagues but were at one point recruited by a local baseball school that waived tuition.”3

Notes David Haugh, “He’s the guy who signed for $40,000 after growing up borrowing gloves from friends who had more money. He’s the guy who learned how to catch bad-hop grounders by practicing on the taped-together balls his dad used to hit him and his brothers.”4 At 16, he was discovered by Chico Carrasquel’s nephew, Toronto Blue Jays scout Emilio Carrasquel.

A student at Lara High School, Izturis was signed by the Blue Jays as an undrafted free agent on July 3, 1996.5

Izturis began his pro career in 1997 with the St. Catharines (Ontario) Stompers in the short-season New York-Penn League. The 17-year-old split his time in the field between second base (40 games) and shortstop (30 games), batting just .190 with 11 RBIs, but he scored 32 runs.

His next two seasons saw him take incremental steps up the ladder, advancing to the low Class-A Hagerstown Suns (South Atlantic League) in 1998 and then the Advanced-A Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League in 1999. With Hagerstown, he got in a full season’s work – 130 games – batting .262 (with a .297 on-base percentage), scoring 56 runs and driving in 38. Almost every game was at shortstop. In 1999 at Dunedin, he hit. 308 (.337 OBP) with 77 runs scored and 77 RBIs. He played shortstop in 84 games and second base in 45.

The Blue Jays jumped Izturis to Triple A for 2000, as shortstop with the International League’s Syracuse Chiefs. Facing a higher level of pitching, he was more challenged at the plate and hit just .218, but he excelled at fielding.

Izturis was back with the Chiefs in 2001 and had adjusted at the plate, hitting .292 in 87 games. In the field, he again split his time as in 1999, with about two-thirds of the games at shortstop and the rest at second base.

Izturis’s 2001 season was most notable, though, for his major-league debut. That came on June 23 at Boston’s Fenway Park. Izturis had been called up after Alex Gonzalez strained his left shoulder and pitcher Lance Painter had been designated for assignment. Manager Buck Martinez had Izturis play shortstop and batted him ninth in the order. He singled to left field off starter Frank Castillo in his first big-league at-bat, scoring two batters later on a two-run single by Homer Bush, part of a seven-run inning that gave the Blue Jays a 7-3 lead and the edge they needed in a 9-6 win.

Izturis’s first RBI came a week later, when the Red Sox played at SkyDome. With the Blue Jays losing 7-3 in the bottom of the ninth, he doubled down the left-field line off Derek Lowe, driving in a run, then scoring two batters later on a double by Alex Gonzalez. The final score was Boston 7, Toronto 5. His first home run came against the visiting Montreal Expos, a two-run inside-the-park home run off Guillermo Mota.

Izturis stuck with the team through the end of July, batting .253. He returned to Syracuse for August, then came back to the Blue Jays after the International League season was over. He appeared in 15 September games, upping his average to .269. He had 9 RBIs and scored 19 runs. The Blue Jays finished third in the AL East. An assessment near the end of the season said that Izturis might replace Bush at second base in 2002, at a lower salary, that he could steal bases like Bush, “but he’s a slap hitter who shows little patience at the plate and lacks Bush’s power.” That said, he had “impressed the club with steady performances and an ability to learn from mistakes.”6

At the Winter Meetings in mid-December, Izturis was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, along with pitcher Paul Quantrill, for prospect Luke Prokopec and minor-leaguer Chad Ricketts. The Blue Jays had traded several players, shedding $24 million in salary. Izturis was least among them in salary but the team apparently felt he needed another year at Triple A.7

Izturis spent the next five seasons playing for the Dodgers. 

After a fourth season of winter ball in Venezuela, he had a very strong spring training in 2002 and the “speedy Izturis [was] considered a good bet to beat out incumbent Alex Cora.”8 He did indeed win the starting role at shortstop, Dodgers manager Jim Tracy saying Izturis could “bring some energy, some speed and the potential to create more run-scoring opportunities to the top of the lineup.”9

Izturis averaged over 150 games of playing time in the years 2002-04, and saw his batting average improve each year, from .232 to .251 to .288. His RBI totals increased as well, from 31 to 40 to 62. Late in 2003, it was observed that Izturis hit about 60 points higher when batting right-handed but he was making progress from the left side.10 Over the course of his career, he hit .263 batting right-handed against lefties and .249 batting left-handed against righties.

In his fourth game with the Dodgers, on April 5, 2002, Izturis doubled, singled, and tripled against the visiting Colorado Rockies.

After his second season with the Dodgers, in 2003, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “Cesar Izturis may be the best young shortstop in the National League.”11 Then his 2004 season was his best: Working with new hitting coach Tim Wallach, Izturis posted the third-highest batting average on the team and ranked fourth in RBIs.12 He also stole 25 bases. In midseason, Plaschke called him “maybe the league’s most improved player not named Adrian Beltre.”13

It had always been Izturis’s defensive play that kept in the lineup in prior years, since his earliest days in the minor leagues. In 2004 his work at shortstop was recognized when he was awarded a Gold Glove, the first Dodgers shortstop to win a Gold Glove since Maury Wills in 1962.

In Izturis’s first three seasons, the fortunes of the Dodgers improved each year as well. Under manager Tracy, the team finished third in 2002, second in 2003, and first in the NL West in 2004. The Dodgers faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 National League Championship Series, losing three games to one. Izturis played in all four games, hit a single his first time up and a double the next, but then went 1-for-15 for a .176 postseason average. It was his only time in postseason baseball. He handled all 20 fielding chances without an error.

Maicer Izturis had made the majors in 2004, debuting on August 27 and playing in 32 late-season games for the Montreal Expos. The last game that saw the Expos and Dodgers play each other had been August 26. Maicer was traded to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in November, so the only time the two brothers might face each other in a game would be in interleague play.

After the 2004 season, Cesar Izturis signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers for a reported $9.9 million. His 2005 season started off very strongly on offense. He was batting .333 at the end of April and .342 at the end of May. He began to struggle in June, “hampered by a sore right hamstring.”14

The two brothers lived 90 minutes away from each other in Southern California. On June 25, 2005, César and Maicer faced each other when the Dodgers played the Angels. “‘When I go on the field, he’s my first enemy,’ Maicer said with a broad smile. ‘After the game, we’ll go back to being brothers.’”15 Cesar played the full game at Angel Stadium and was 0-for-4 at the plate. After the sixth inning, Maicer came in to play third base. He did not bat, and no play involved the two of them. The next day, though, both played the full game, Cesar going 0-for-4 but Maicer enjoying a 3-for-4 day. He drove in the third run in a 5-3 Angels win. Jeff DaVanon’s triple was “followed by a single by Maicer Izturis that looped over the head of his brother, Dodger shortstop Cesar, who was playing in to cut off a run.”16

Cesar had been named as a reserve to the National League All-Star team, but did not play. He spent the first two weeks of July on the disabled list. What proved to be a sprained back troubled him in the latter half of August, and he played his last game of the season on August 22. The day he was due to come off the DL for the back, he had an MRI of his right elbow. The diagnosis led to Tommy John ligament replacement surgery in September.

With recovery time expected to take until nearly the summer of 2006, the Dodgers acquired Rafael Furcal at shortstop. Izturis did return in June, after rehabbing with Class-A Vero Beach and then in 15 games for Triple-A Las Vegas. More often than not, he played third base on his return.

In mid-July, Izturis was criticized for choosing to attend the birth of his daughter Daniella, by cesarean section, because he missed four games.17 Major League Baseball at the time offered no accommodations for paternity leave.18

At the end of July, after 32 games with the Dodgers, Izturis was batting .252. At the trade deadline a week later, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs for Greg Maddux. “The Cubs are going to have a pretty good shortstop for a long time,” declared manager Ozzie Guillen. Cubs fans eagerly anticipated the double-play combo of Izturis at short and Ronny Cedeño at second, but some lamented his shaky offense: “He doesn’t walk and he doesn’t hit for power.”19

The Dodgers were in fifth place at the time of the trade; they finished tied with San Diego and entered the playoffs as the wild-card team. Maddux contributed, with a 6-3 mark. The Cubs had been fifth in the NL Central; they finished last, in sixth place.

Izturis hit .233 for Dusty Baker’s Cubs in 22 games. He missed three weeks with a strained hamstring.

In 2007 Izturis played shortstop for the Cubs, batting .246 through July 15, Roger Cedeño moving to second base. Izturis’s contract was sold to the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 19. Playing again for manager Jim Tracy, now with Pittsburgh, Izturis hit .276 for the Pirates in 45 games.

The Pirates declined to exercise the option they held for 2008 and Izturis signed a one-year deal with the St. Louis Cardinals in November. His reception remained ambivalent since he was replacing fan favorite David Eckstein, another small-statured shortstop with a great glove. Columnist Bernie Miklasz remarked, “The Cardinals like his glove, but others say he’s slipped defensively.” Dan O’Neill wrote, “Why do people get bent out of shape about the Cardinals’ signing of César Izturis? It’s not like winning championships with a light-hitting, sharp-fielding shortstop is a foreign concept. For reference, see Dal Maxvill, 1967 and 1968.”20 Izturis batted .263 in 135 games, with 24 stolen bases.

A free agent after the 2008 season, Izturis played for the Baltimore Orioles from 2009 through 2011. In 2009 he was out from June 4 to July 10 after needing an appendectomy. Appearing in 114 games, he batted .256. In 2010 he played in 150 games, but with less productivity at the plate, hitting .230.

Izturis got into only 18 games for Baltimore in 2011. He was out from May 13 to August 5 with a right elbow injury and then from August 8 to the end of the season with a left groin strain. He hit .200.

Izturis spent the end of his career bouncing from team to team. In December 2011 he signed a minor-league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers, but he made the team out of spring training. After he appeared in 57 games, batting .235, Milwaukee placed him on waivers. On August 6 the Washington Nationals claimed him. They designated him for assignment 11 days after he had arrived in Washington.

In January 2013, the Cincinnati Reds signed Izturis to a minor-league contract. Once again, he made the team and he appeared in 63 games. He got 129 at-bats and hit .209 with 11 RBIs. He signed a minor-league deal with Houston in January 2014, but was released in March. In September 2015 he joined the Cardinales de Lara of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and played with them for two seasons.

Izturis is among the six players who have played for every team in a single division; he and 1960s Phillies outfielder Ted Savage share the distinction of playing for every team in the NL Central.21

Maicer’s career saw him play from 2005 through 2012 for the Angels, batting .276 over those eight seasons. He played in 107 games for the 2013 Toronto Blue Jays, and then a final 11 games in 2014. His career batting average was .269, with 334 RBIs to Cesar’s 312.

Izturis’s son, also named César, signed with the Seattle Mariners in 2017 and as of 2023 was still an infielder in the Mariners’ farm system. In 2021, Izturis was living in Barquisimeto with his wife Liliana and their children César (b. 1999) and Daniella (b. 2006). César Izturis Jr. played for the Mariners’ minor-league team, the Modesto Nuts in 2021. (He opted to return to Venezuela for his high school career so that he could start his professional baseball career sooner as an international free agent).

César is close with his half-brother Maicer. Another half-brother, Julio Izturis, has played in the San Francisco and Toronto farm systems. In 2015 César and Maicer opened a baseball academy in Barquisimeto. Several of its graduates have played in the minor leagues. As of 2024, the Academia de Béisbol Izturis was still going strong.22

César Izturis’ career was marked by strong defense, shaky offense (he finished with a .254 career batting average), and a reputation as a positive presence. Though he hopped from team to team, he was generally seen as a drama-free, affable mentor to upcoming players, especially his fellow Venezuelans.

Last revised: January 31, 2026

Photo credit

César Izturis, Getty Images.

Notes

1 Tim Brown, “Truckload of Talent,” Los Angeles Times, July 11, 2005: D1.

2 Tim Brown.

3 Tim Brown.

4 David Haugh, “César Izturis, His New Cubs Career Off and Running, Doesn’t Regret Wrangle with Dodgers After Missing Games Following His Daughter’s Birth,” Chicago Tribune, August 2, 2006, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-08-02-0608020214-story.html.

5 Rod Nelson, of SABR’s Scouts and Scouting Committee, points out that in the 1998 Minor League Digest (Baseball Blue Book), Blue Jays cross-checker Mike Russell was also credited with signing Izturis.

6 Tom Maloney, “Gonzalez Shows a Potent Bat in the No. 2 Spot,” The Sporting News, October 1, 2001: 59.

7 Ken Rosenthal, “Let’s Separate the Deal Deals from the Duds,” The Sporting News. December 24, 2001: 57. Within three years, wrote Ross Newhan, the trade, pulled off by GM Dan Evans, “turned out to be a steal.” Ross Newhan, “Hailing Cesar, Whose Fame Is a Two-Sided Issue,” Los Angeles Times, October 5, 2004: D5.

8 Mike DiGiovanna, “Don’t Sell Him Short,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 2002: D4.

9 Mike DiGiovanna, “In the Short Run, Izturis Is Tracy’s First Choice,” Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2002: D1.

10 “Los Angeles Dodgers,” The Sporting News, September 1, 2003: 73,

11 Bill Plaschke, “Evans Still Has A Little Work Remaining,” Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2003: D1.

12 On beginning to work with Wallach, see Ben Bolch, “Izturis Has Been a Hit at the Plate,” Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2004: D7, and Ben Bolch, “Players Embrace Wallach’s Message,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2004: D8.

13 Bill Plaschke, “L.A. Team That Gets the Concept,” Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2004: D1. Near the end of the season, columnist T.J. Simers enthused about the success the Dodgers had had as a “miracle,” asking, “How do you explain trading away left-handed-hitting Dave Roberts, a base stealer, and going with Cesar Izturis,  maybe the worst left- handed hitter in baseball since Tom Lasorda posted a career .071 batting average, only to find he has developed into one of the best leadoff men in baseball?” T.J. Simers, “You Can’t Spell Miracle without Lima,” Los Angeles Times, September 26, 2004: D2.

14 Dave Curtis, “Martinez Will Pass on the All-Star Game,” New York Times, July 8, 2005: D2.

15 Greg Ball, “Izturis brothers finally have showdown,” San Diego Union Tribune, June 24, 2005, https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-izturis-brothers-finally-have-showdown-2005jun24-story.html.

16 Steve Henson, “Sweeping Message by Angels,” Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2005: D1.

17 David Haugh.

18 One writer who criticized MLB was J.A. Adande: “Izturis Case Shows How Baseball Drops the Ball,” Los Angeles Times, July 23,2006: D2. Izturis had missed the birth of his son six years earlier and didn’t want to miss this one. See David Haugh.

19 Dave Studeman, “Ten Things I Didn’t Know Last Week,” Hardball Times, August 3, 2006, https://tht.fangraphs.com/ten-things-i-didnt-know-last-week29/.

20 “How César Izturis Replaced David Eckstein at Shortstop,” Retrosimba.com, November 28, 2017, https://retrosimba.com/2017/11/28/how-César-izturis-replaced-david-eckstein-at-shortstop/.

21 Bryan Grosnick, “The Players Who Have Appeared for Each Team in a Division,” February 19, 2016, Bleacher Report, https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2016/2/19/11064018/every-team-division-mark-mclemore-ted-savage-kelly-johnson-steve-finley-matt-herges-César-izturis.

22 The academy website provides more information: https://www.instagram.com/academiaizturis/?hl=es.