Johan Santana

Johan Santana
Johan Santana at the pitch
New York Mets - No. 57
Starting pitcher
Born: March 13, 1979 in Tovar , Venezuela
Strikes: Left	Throws: Left
Debut in Major League Baseball
April 3,  2000  for the Minnesota Twins
MLB statistics (until the end of the 2010 season)
Win-loss	133-69
ERA	3.10
Strikeouts	1,877
Teams
Minnesota Twins (2000-2007) New York Mets (2008-2012)
Awards
4 × MLB All-Star Game : 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 2 × Cy Young Award : 2004, 2006 2 × TSN Pitcher of the Year : 2004, 2006 2 × Players Choice Award : 2004, 2006 2 × Warren Spahn Award : 2004, 2006 Gold Glove Award : 2007 Pitching Triple Crown : 2006 First of the AL in Wins : 2006 First of the AL in strikeouts : 2004, 2005, 2006 First of the AL in ERA : 2004, 2008 First of the NL in ERA : 2008

Johan Santana (born March 13, 1979 in Tovar , Mérida , Venezuela ) is a Venezuelan baseball player who plays as a pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets .

After he was drafted by the Florida Marlins in 1999 , he joined the Minnesota Twins , for whom he made his MLB debut in 2000. In 2004 and 2006 he won the American League's Cy Young Award .

Acting as a draft horse, Santana led his club from the Twin Cities to the play-offs in 2004, where they were defeated by the New York Yankees in the first round . In 2006 he managed to win the Triple Crown as a pitcher, he led the MLB in strikeouts (245), in ERA (2.77) and in wins (19, shared 1st place with Chien-Ming Wang).

He is currently considered one of the best strikeout pitchers. After 2005 he also led these statistics in 2006.

On August 19, 2007, Johan Santana broke a record for his club, the Minnesota Twins, by throwing 17 strikeouts in a game against the Texas Rangers . He was two strikeouts above the previous record.

In the 2007 off-season Johan Santana was traded to the New York Mets . There he signed a contract worth $ 137.5 million over 6 years, which was also a record for the highest-value contract for a pitcher.

On June 1, 2012, Santana threw in the Mets game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the first no-hitter in the Mets' 51-year franchise history.

Santana played his last season in 2012. He then tried repeatedly at various MLB clubs, but was unable to earn a place in a major league squad due to a serious shoulder injury and then a ruptured Achilles tendon .

Web links

Commons : Johan Santana  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Player information and statistics from MLB  or  ESPN  or  Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  The Baseball Cube (English)