| Shawn Wooten | |
|---|---|
_(cropped).jpg) | |
| First baseman /Catcher | |
| Born: (1972-07-24)July 24, 1972 (age 53) Glendora, California, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 19, 2000, for the Anaheim Angels | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| May 26, 2005, for the Boston Red Sox | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .272 |
| Home runs | 18 |
| Runs batted in | 86 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
William Shawn Wooten (born July 24, 1972) is the assistant major league hitting coach for theLos Angeles Angels. He is a former professionalbaseball player. He played all or parts of five seasons inMajor League Baseball with theAnaheim Angels (2000–03),Philadelphia Phillies (2004), andBoston Red Sox (2005). He bats and throwsright-handed.
Autility player who playedfirst base,catcher, andthird base, Wooten compiled a .272batting average with 18home runs and 86RBI in 266games played in his major league career. A member of the Angels'2002 World Series championship team, he was a late bloomer, not making the majors until age 28. After that, while he played well in limited playing time, his career was derailed by a pair of injuries.
Wooten was originally drafted and signed by theDetroit Tigers in 1993 as a third baseman. He played a little over two years in the Tigers organization, but was released in midseason in 1995 after batting .129 in 20 games with Double-AJacksonville. He signed with the independentMoose Jaw Diamond Dogs of thePrairie League, where he hit .373 over the second half of 1995. After playing for Moose Jaw again in 1996, he was signed by theAnaheim Angels for the 1997 season.
The Angels assigned Wooten to the Class-ACedar Rapids Kernels, where he began learning the catcher position. In 1998, with theLake Elsinore Storm, he was the club's starting first baseman, and over the next two seasons Wooten continued to play all three positions. In 2000, he batted .353 with the Triple-AEdmonton Trappers, earning a late-season promotion to the major leagues. He made his major league debut on August 19 as the starting catcher against theNew York Yankees and was hitless in four at-bats. His first hit was a single to left field againstKelvim Escobar of theToronto Blue Jays on August 30. He wound up playing in 7 games, getting five hits in nineat bats.
In 2001, Wooten spent his first full season in the major leagues with Anaheim (qualifying as arookie) after making the 25-man roster out ofspring training. He opened the campaign batting .385 (10-for-26), with three home runs and six runs batted in in April, leading allAmerican League rookies in home runs for the month. His first homer was hit offMark Mulder of theOakland Athletics on April 16. In June, he led Angels hitters with a .386 average (17-for-44) and was batting .328 (42-for-128) at theAll-Star break, second toSeattle'sIchiro Suzuki among AL rookies (based on 125at bats). Wooten hit safely in 47 contests, including 17 multi-hit games.
His season ended when doctors discovered torn cartilage in his left wrist in early September and he underwentarthroscopic surgery. At the time, he was hitting .312 (69-for-221) with eight home runs and 32 runs batted in in 79 games and ranked second amongAmerican League first-year players with a .466slugging percentage. Nevertheless, he was selected for theBaseball Digest andTopps Major League Baseball rookie All-Star teams. At the time of the injury, his .312 average was second best among American League rookies and was tops on the Angels' club.[1] He wound up starting the most games (27) atdesignated hitter, but also played 25 games at catcher and 21 at first base.
After starting the 2002 season in the minor leagues on a rehab assignment, Wooten came off thedisabled list in July 2002. He played in 49 of the team's last 76 games, batting .338 (26-for-77) from August through September, including threedoubles in a game to tie a team record.[citation needed] Overall, he finished with a .292 average in 49 games, mostly as aDH or first baseman.
In the 2002 postseason, Wooten was used as the club's DH against left-handed pitching,platooning withBrad Fullmer. In the2002 American League Division Series against theNew York Yankees, Wooten started two of the four games at DH andpinch-hit in a third. He had six hits in nine at-bats, including a game-tyinghome run offDavid Wells in the fifth inning of Game 4, which the Angels went on to win to finish off the series. In theALCS against theMinnesota Twins, Wooten started one game and played in two others, going 2-for-8 with one RBI. In theWorld Series against theSan Francisco Giants, who did not start any left-handers, he appeared in three games, going 1-for-2. Overall, he hit .474 (9-for-19) with one home run, three RBI and five runs scored in nine postseason games, third best among all hitters in the playoffs.[citation needed]
In 2003, Wooten posted career highs in games (98), at bats (272),runs (25) andwalks (24), hitting .243 with seven home runs and 32 RBI. Anaheimpitchers posted a 3.81ERA with him behind theplate.[citation needed] After a knee injury, Wooten was used mainly as apinch hitter. His .350 pinch-average (7-for-20) tied for second in the American League.[citation needed]
Wooten became a free agent after the 2003 season, and signed with thePhiladelphia Phillies before the 2004 season. He was used mostly as a pinch hitter and backup to starting first basemanJim Thome. However, he batted just .184 and was sent to the minor leagues in July, returning when the rosters expanded in September. He became a free agent again after the season.
TheBoston Red Sox signed Wooten to a minor league contract before the 2005 season and assigned him to thePawtucket Red Sox. On May 19, 2005, the Red Sox placed reserve catcherDoug Mirabelli on the 15-day DL prior to theinterleague series opener with theAtlanta Braves, and the Red Sox purchased the contract of Wooten to replace him. At this time, Wooten had seven home runs and 27 RBI in 39 games for Pawtucket and was hitting .225 (34-for-151) when he got the call. He appeared in just one game, replacingJason Varitek in the late innings of a blowout against theToronto Blue Jays on May 26, before returning to the minor leagues for the rest of the season. It turned out to be his last major league appearance.
He signed a minor league contract with theMinnesota Twins at the beginning of the 2006 season and played for their Triple-A affiliate, theRochester Red Wings, batting .253. He then signed with theSan Diego Padres in 2007, where he began the year with theSan Antonio Missions, their Double-A affiliate. He was released on July 17, then played in three games with the non-affiliatedSt. Paul Saints before theNew York Mets bought out his contract. He was released by the Mets on May 3, 2008, and quickly re-signed with the Padres. He became a free agent at the end of the season, but went unsigned to end his playing career.
After his playing career ended, Wooten joined the Padres organization as an instructor. In 2010, he served as hitting coach of the short-seasonEugene Emeralds.[2] He managed the Class-AFort Wayne TinCaps of theMidwest League in 2011.[2] On November 10, 2011 he was hired as manager of theLake Elsinore Storm of theCalifornia League, the Class-A Advanced affiliate of the Padres.[3] He remained with the Storm through the 2013 season and then was hired as hitting coach for the Double-AChattanooga Lookouts in the Dodgers organization. In 2015 the Dodgers switched their Double-A affiliation to theTulsa Drillers and he remained the hitting coach for them.[4] He was promoted to hitting coach for the AAAOklahoma City Dodgers of thePacific Coast League in 2016.[5] He left his position with the Dodgers after the 2017 season.
Wooten was employed by theLos Angeles Angels as a minor league hitting director in 2017. In the offseason, Wooten operates a baseball academy for young kids to high schoolers (and sometimes working with college players) inPlymouth, Minnesota. Following his minor league job, Wooten was promoted to the position of Assistant Major League Hitting Coach for theLos Angeles Angels prior to the 2019 season.[6]
Wooten is a member of the Cedar Rapids Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.[7]
· Baseball Almanac