José Fernández (third baseman)

José Mayobanex Fernández Rojas (born November 2, 1974) is a retired third baseman in Major League Baseball, the KBO League, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the Dominican Winter Baseball League. He played eleven years in the NPB, compiling a .282 batting average with 206 home runs and 772 runs batted in.

José Fernández
Fernández for the Orix Buffaloes in 2013
Third baseman
Born: (1974-11-02) November 2, 1974 (age 49)
La Vega, Dominican Republic
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Professional debut
MLB: July 3, 1999, for the Montreal Expos
KBO: 2002, for the SK Wyverns
NPB: April 18, 2003, for the Chiba Lotte Marines
Last appearance
MLB: 2001, for the Anaheim Angels
KBO: 2002, for the SK Wyverns
NPB: September 22, 2013, for the Orix Buffaloes
MLB statistics
Batting average.143
Home runs0
Runs batted in1
NPB statistics
Batting average.282
Home runs206
Runs batted in772
OPS.820
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Fernández played briefly in Major League Baseball for the Montreal Expos (1999) and the Anaheim Angels (2001). He just hit .143 in 49 at-bats during his MLB career.

After a successful season in Korea in 2002 with the SK Wyverns, in 2003 Fernández came to Japan to play Nippon Professional Baseball. He played one season for the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2003, and then two seasons for the Seibu Lions in 2004–2005. Fernández was a key member of the 2004 Japan Series-champion Lions team.

Moving to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, he played for that team for three seasons, in 2006–2008. While playing for the Golden Eagles, he was a Pacific League Best Nine Award-winner at third base in 2006. On April 1, 2007, Fernández and Takeshi Yamasaki hit grand slams in the same inning for the Golden Eagles. Fernández led the Golden Eagles in RBI in 2008, with 99.

Fernández played for the champion Dominican Republic national baseball team in the 2007 Caribbean Series.

Fernández played for the Orix Buffaloes in 2009 and then returned to the Saitama Seibu Lions franchise for 2010–2011. He returned to the Golden Eagles in 2012, and then returned to the Buffaloes for his final season, 2013.

After briefly playing in Mexican League for the Tigres de Quintana Roo in 2010, Fernández was signed by the Seibu Lions on a ¥30million deal to the end of the season.[citation needed]

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