Rick Aguilera (born December 31, 1961 in San Gabriel, California) is a former relief pitcher in Major League Baseball for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs. Aguilera began his career as a third baseman and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1980, but he decided to attend Brigham Young University instead. By the time the Mets drafted him in 1983, he was a pitcher. Aguilera saw his first Major League action in June 1985 as the Mets were in a fierce division race with the Cardinals. He was particularly effective in July, going 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA, and ended the season 10-7 as the Cardinals edged out the Mets. Aguilera posted an identical record the next year in 1986 as the number five starter for the division-winning Mets and went on to pitch five scorless innings in relief against the Houston Astros in that year's NLCS. Despite a horrid 12.00 ERA in the World Series that year, he was the pitcher of record in the Mets' dramatic Game 6 victory. Injuries slowed him the next two years, but he did pitch seven innings of one-run relief in the 1988 NLCS, which led to the Mets to experiment with him as a reliever.
At the trading deadline in 1989, Aguilera was one of five pitchers dealt to the Minnesota Twins for Frank Viola. Although he completed the season as a starter, he was shifted to the closer's role in 1990 and responded by saving 32 games for a team that went 74-88. The next year, his relief pitching was instrumental in the Twins surprising division title, as he saved 42 games with a 2.76 ERA, a team record that would stand until Eddie Guardado broke it in 2002 with 45 saves. He went on to save three of four victories in the ALCS and the first two games of the World Series against the Atlanta Braves. In Game 3, he became the first pitcher to pinch hit in a World Series game since Don Drysdale in 1965, flying out in the top of the 12th with the bases loaded and two outs before giving up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the inning. Aguilera also won Game 6. Aguilera was a fine closer for the Twins (and very briefly the Red Sox in 1995) from 1990-95 and was named to three all star teams from 1991-93. After an off year in 1996, he continued to be effective through 1999, when the Twins traded him to the Cubs near the beginning of the season because they thought he would leave as a free agent at the end of the year. He retired after a disappointing 2000 season. He is the Twins' all time leader saves (254) as well as being thirteenth on the all-time saves list with 318.
In 2006, his first year of eligibility, Aguilera received less than 5f the vote (he received 3 votes; the threshold was 26) from the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, thus becoming ineligible to appear on future BBWAA ballots. However, he may eventually be considered for induction into the Hall by the Veterans Committee once 20 years have passed from his date of retirement (therefore, in the year 2021), in accordance with current Hall of Fame rules (enacted in 2001).
YEAR TEAM AGE W L PCT G GS CG SV GF IP H R ER BB SO ERA RSAA 1985 Mets 23 10 7 .588 21 19 2 0 1 122.1 118 49 44 37 74 3.24 2 1986 Mets 24 10 7 .588 28 20 2 0 2 141.2 145 70 61 36 104 3.88 -6 1987 Mets 25 11 3 .786 18 17 1 0 0 115 124 53 46 33 77 3.60 5 1988 Mets 26 0 4 .000 11 3 0 0 2 24.2 29 20 19 10 16 6.93 -11 1989 Mets 27 6 6 .500 36 0 0 7 19 69.1 59 19 18 21 80 2.34 8 Twins 27 3 5 .375 11 11 3 0 0 75.2 71 32 27 17 57 3.21 8 TOTALS 9 11 .450 47 11 3 7 19 145 130 51 45 38 137 2.79 16 1990 Twins 28 5 3 .625 56 0 0 32 54 65.1 55 27 20 19 61 2.76 10 1991 Twins 29 4 5 .444 63 0 0 42 60 69 44 20 18 30 61 2.35 13 1992 Twins 30 2 6 .250 64 0 0 41 61 66.2 60 28 21 17 52 2.84 10 1993 Twins 31 4 3 .571 65 0 0 34 61 72.1 60 25 25 14 59 3.11 11 1994 Twins 32 1 4 .200 44 0 0 23 40 44.2 57 23 18 10 46 3.63 6 1995 Twins 33 1 1 .500 22 0 0 12 21 25 20 7 7 6 29 2.52 6 Redsox 33 2 2 .500 30 0 0 20 30 30.1 26 9 9 7 23 2.67 7 TOTALS 3 3 .500 52 0 0 32 51 55.1 46 16 16 13 52 2.60 13 1996 Twins 34 8 6 .571 19 19 2 0 0 111.1 124 69 67 27 83 5.42 -3 1997 Twins 35 5 4 .556 61 0 0 26 57 68.1 65 29 29 22 68 3.82 6 1998 Twins 36 4 9 .308 68 0 0 38 64 74.1 75 35 35 15 57 4.24 3 1999 Twins 37 3 1 .750 17 0 0 6 16 21 10 3 3 2 13 1.29 9 Cubs 37 6 3 .667 44 0 0 8 25 46 44 22 19 10 32 3.72 6 TOTALS 9 4 .692 61 0 0 14 41 67 54 25 22 12 45 2.96 15 2000 Cubs 38 1 2 .333 54 0 0 29 44 47.2 47 28 26 18 38 4.91 -4 TOTALS 86 81 .515 732 89 10 318 557 1290.2 1233 568 512 351 1030 3.57 86 LG AVERAGE 72 72 .500 10 156 1290.2 1294 662 600 498 855 4.18 0 YEAR TEAM HR H/9 BR/9 SO/9 BB/9 SO/BB SHO WP IBB HBP BFP BK NW NL 1985 Mets 8 8.68 11.55 5.44 2.72 2.00 0 5 2 2 507 2 9 8 1986 Mets 15 9.21 11.94 6.61 2.29 2.89 0 5 1 7 605 3 8 9 1987 Mets 12 9.70 12.52 6.03 2.58 2.33 0 9 2 3 494 0 8 6 1988 Mets 2 10.58 14.59 5.84 3.65 1.60 0 1 2 1 111 1 1 3 1989 Mets 3 7.66 10.64 10.38 2.73 3.81 0 3 3 2 284 3 8 4 Twins 5 8.44 10.59 6.78 2.02 3.35 0 1 1 1 310 0 5 3 TOTALS 8 8.07 10.61 8.50 2.36 3.61 0 4 4 3 594 3 13 7 1990 Twins 5 7.58 10.74 8.40 2.62 3.21 0 3 6 4 268 0 5 3 1991 Twins 3 5.74 9.78 7.96 3.91 2.03 0 3 6 1 275 0 7 2 1992 Twins 7 8.10 10.53 7.02 2.30 3.06 0 5 4 1 273 0 5 3 1993 Twins 9 7.47 9.33 7.34 1.74 4.21 0 1 3 1 287 0 5 2 1994 Twins 7 11.49 13.50 9.27 2.01 4.60 0 2 3 0 201 0 3 2 1995 Twins 2 7.20 9.72 10.44 2.16 4.83 0 0 1 1 99 0 2 0 Redsox 4 7.71 9.79 6.82 2.08 3.29 0 0 0 0 124 0 3 1 TOTALS 6 7.48 9.76 8.46 2.11 4.00 0 0 1 1 223 0 5 1 1996 Twins 20 10.02 12.45 6.71 2.18 3.07 0 6 1 3 484 0 7 7 1997 Twins 9 8.56 11.72 8.96 2.90 3.09 0 3 3 2 285 0 5 4 1998 Twins 8 9.08 11.02 6.90 1.82 3.80 0 1 1 1 307 0 7 6 1999 Twins 2 4.29 5.14 5.57 0.86 6.50 0 1 0 0 76 1 4 0 Cubs 6 8.61 10.96 6.26 1.96 3.20 0 3 1 2 191 0 6 3 TOTALS 8 7.25 9.13 6.04 1.61 3.75 0 4 1 2 267 1 10 3 2000 Cubs 11 8.87 13.03 7.17 3.40 2.11 0 1 2 4 210 0 1 2 TOTALS 138 8.60 11.30 7.18 2.45 2.93 0 53 42 36 5391 10 99 68 LG AVERAGE 133 9.03 12.74 5.96 3.48 1.72 4 46 45 35 5560 9 RICK AGUILERA LEAGUE LEADERSHIP RANKINGS 1986 NL HIT BY PITCHES T3RD 7 1987 NL WILD PITCHES T8TH 9 1990 AL SAVES T6TH 32; GAMES FINISHED 7TH 54 1991 AL SAVES 3RD 42; GAMES FINISHED 3RD 60 1992 AL SAVES 2ND 41 GAMES FINISHED 4TH 61 1993 AL SAVES 6TH 34; GAMES FINISHED 4TH 61 1994 AL SAVES 3RD 23; GAMES FINISHED T2ND 40 1995 AL SAVES T3RD 32; GAMES FINISHED T4TH 51 1997 AL SAVES 9TH 26; GAMES FINISHED T4TH 57 1998 AL SAVES 5TH 38; GAMES FINISHED 2ND 64 2000 NL SAVES T6TH 29
