Miguel Fuentes (baseball)

Career with the Pilots organization

Fuentes was first assigned to the Clinton Pilots, a Class A team in the Midwest League. There he posted an 8–2 record in 26 appearances with a 1.46 earned run average, the lowest in the league among pitchers with 40 or more innings. He was called up to the Seattle Pilots' Major League roster in September 1969. He debuted on September 1, striking out two in one inning against the New York Yankees.

After a second relief outing, he made his first start and threw a complete game against the Chicago White Sox, allowing one run on seven hits. He made three other starts, each a loss, and ended his season with a relief appearance in Seattle's final game, throwing the team's last pitches before the franchise became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970. His final major league totals were a 1–3 record, a 5.19 ERA, and 14 strikeouts in eight games, four of them starts.

Death

During the 1969–1970 off-season, Fuentes played for the Caguas Criollos in the Puerto Rican Winter League. A few days after the Criollos' playoff elimination, on January 29, he was shot three times at a bar in Loíza Aldea. He had gone outside to relieve himself because of a plumbing problem in the bathroom; someone who thought he was doing so too close to his car shot him. Fuentes was taken to a hospital in shock and died of his wounds shortly afterward.

At the time of his death, he was regarded as a top prospect in the Pilots organization. Because the Pilots moved to Milwaukee in 1970, Fuentes holds the distinction of throwing the final pitches in the history of the Seattle Pilots. He appears in the 1970 Topps baseball card set as a Seattle Pilot, as the cards were already in production and the franchise had not yet announced its move.

Did You Know?

• Fuentes was born in the barrio of Loíza Aldea in Loíza, Puerto Rico.
• He helped lead his amateur team to a Puerto Rican championship in 1968.
• He was discovered by scout Felix Delgado, who signed him to his first professional contract.