Carlos Pena Carlos Peña Position First baseman/Designated hitter Team New York Yankees Years of Experience 5 years Age 27 Height 6'2" (2.00 m) Weight 210 lbs. (95 kg) Bats Left Throws Left College Northeastern University 2005 Salary $2,575,000 Place of Birth Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Selection Round 1, pick 10, 1998 Drafted by Texas Rangers Major League Debut September 5, 2001 Carlos Felipe Peña (born May 17, 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a left-handed first baseman in Major League Baseball. He spent three and a half years with the Detroit Tigers after being acquired via trade in July 2002 from the Oakland Athletics, who had acquired him the previous year from the Texas Rangers. At the time he was considered a top prospect. After relatively solid rookie and sophomore seasons, his consistency at the plate dipped noticably, and he was demoted back to the minors early in the 2005 season. The Tigers recalled him in August, and despite a knack for hitting game-deciding home runs during the last few weeks of that season, all of his stats other than home runs and slugging percentage were sub-par. With Chris Shelton penciled in as the Tigers' starting first baseman for the 2006 season, Peña had hoped to win a role as a utility player or a designated hitter, but after continuing to disappoint during spring training, the team released him outright on March 28, 2006. Peña was picked up by the New York Yankees, and is currently playing for the Yankees' minor-league Columbus Clippers.
Peña was drafted by the Rangers with the tenth pick in the first round of the 1998 amateur draft.
As of the end of the 2005 season, his career batting average is .243, with 85 home runs and 240 RBI in 489 games and 1652 plate appearances. He attended Haverhill High School, Haverhill, Massachusetts and then Northeastern University, Boston.
Peña is the first Major League player to have also played in Steve Buckley's annual Old Time Baseball Game, played at St. Peter's Field in Cambridge, Massachusetts each August.
On April 15th 2006 he signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees.
