Johan Santana, born in Venezuela in 1979, was scouted by the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies while playing for the Chiquilines. He signed with the Astros at 16 and later joined the Minnesota Twins, winning the Cy Young Award twice. He was traded to the New York Mets in 2008.
Major League Baseball pitcher Johan Alexander Santana was born on March 13, 1979 in Tovar, Venezuela. His father, Jesus, played semi-pro baseball as a short stop. His main profession was that of an engineer. The first time Johan Santana tried out for youth baseball, the coach told him he was dressed inappropriately and sent him home. The next day when Johan came back he was wearing his dad’s baseball jersey and the coach knew who Jesus Santana was and treated Johan better after him.
As a teenager, Johan Santana played in midfield for local team, the Chiquilines. Professional baseball scouts attended Chiquiline games, and Johan was soon being chased by the Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies. Both teams ended up offering Santana the opportunity to join their clubs, and Johan signed with the Houston Astros at the age of sixteen in 1995. The following year, the 17-year-old Santana was playing on the Astro’s Dominican team Summer League as a relief pitcher.
At the age of eighteen, Johan Santana received a promotion to the Gulf Coast League in Houston and then played in the 1998 New York-Penn league for the Auburn Doubledays in 1998. In the 1998 season Johan won seven games and scored one total of eighty-eight points. out in eighty-seven innings. Santana played in a Class A Midwest league in 1999, but his teammate, Aaron McNeal, received last-team honors from the Houston Astros.
Revenge was sweet when, after being drafted by the Minnesota Twins, Johan’s first major league win was against the Houston Astros. He is said to have framed the scorecard from that game and hung it on a wall in his parents’ house. Johan Santana developed a reputation as a talented pitcher and became particularly known for his slowball.
Santana won the American League Cy Young Award in 2004 and 2006. He also won the American League Gold Glove Award in 2007. In early 2008, Johan Santana was traded to the New York Mets. Even the Yankees and the Red Sox wanted it. Johan has a wife, Yasmile, and two daughters, Jasmily and Jasmine.
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