| Fernando Villegas | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saraperos de Saltillo – No. 8 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Outfielder | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Born: (1998-06-28)28 June 1998 (age 27) Saltillo,Coahuila,Mexico | |||||||||||||||||||||
Bats: Right Throws: Right | |||||||||||||||||||||
Medals
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Fernando Villegas Luna[a] (born 28 June 1998) is a Mexican professionalbaseballoutfielder for theSaraperos de Saltillo of theMexican League. Villegas played in the minor leagues for thePittsburgh Pirates organization and has representedMexico at the2023 Central American and Caribbean Games and2023 Pan American Games.
Villegas was born inSaltillo,Coahuila on 28 June 1998. He started playing baseball at the age of three in local youth teams in his hometown, coached by his father, Fernando Villegas Sr., who played professionally in theMexican League. He represented the state of Coahuila in the National Olympiad, a youth amateur sports event organized byCONADE, three times in 2012, 2013 and 2014, where he won silver, bronze and gold medals respectively.[1][2]
In 2013, Villegas was signed by theSaraperos de Saltillo and joined the club's academy, where he played for five years, including 43 games with theTiburones de Puerto Peñasco of theLiga Norte de México in 2017.[1]
On February 10, 2018, Villegas signed a minor league contract with thePittsburgh Pirates organization.[1] He made his affiliated debut with theGCL Pirates of the rookie-levelGulf Coast League. In 2019, Villegas played for the rookie-levelBristol Pirates before being promoted to theWest Virginia Black Bears of theLow-ANew York–Penn League, where he batted .219 with 15 RBI and one home run in 21 games.[3][4]
Villegas did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the minor league season because of theCOVID-19 pandemic.[5] Villegas was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates on 26 June 2021.
Villegas returned to theSaraperos de Saltillo making hisMexican League (LMB) debut in the2021 season, playing eight games, batting .364 with one home run and seven RBI.[4] In 2022, he finished the season recording a .346 batting average, eight home runs, 48 RBI, 16 doubles and leading the LMB in triples with ten.[6][7] In his third year in the LMB, Villegas won the 2023 Mexican League Most Valuable Player Award andbatting title, after finishing the season with a .390 batting average, 104 hits, 16 home runs and 58 RBI.[8][9]
Villegas joined theCharros de Jalisco of theMexican Pacific League ahead of the 2019–20 season, but he did not become part of the regular lineup until the2022–23 season, when he won the Rookie of the Year Award.[10][11]
Villegas was selected to representMexico at the2023 Central American and Caribbean Games, where the team won the gold medal.[12][13][14] He won the tournament's triple crown, batting .611 with four home runs and 13 RBIs.[15]
Villegas was part of theMexican squad that won the bronze medal at the2023 Pan American Games contested inSantiago,Chile in October 2023.[16][17] He played six games, batting .450 with six RBIs.[18]
