Allan Murray de San Miguel (born 1 February 1988) is an Australian former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

. He is currently a coach with the

Kansas City Royals The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team was founded as an expans ...

. De San Miguel was previously a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

for the

Melbourne Aces The Melbourne Aces are a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Their home field is the Melbourne Ballpark in Altona. History On Friday, 20 August 2010 it was announced that ex ...

of the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it ...

following a long career with the

Australian national baseball team The Australian national baseball team represents Australia in international baseball tournaments and competitions. It is ranked as the top team in Oceania, and is the Oceanian Champion, having been awarded the title in 2007 when New Zealand wi ...

, both the

Perth Heat The Perth Heat is a baseball team in the current Australian Baseball League and a foundation member of the Australian Baseball League. It is now the most successful team in ABL, winning 15 Claxton Shields. Australian Baseball League (1989–19 ...

and

in the

and various minor league baseball teams. De San Miguel is the most capped player in the

, holding the record for the most games played with 386 when he retired following the 2019–20 Australian Baseball League season.

Playing career

De San Miguel attended

South Fremantle Senior High School South Fremantle Senior High School (SFSHS) is a former comprehensive public co-educational high day school, that was located in Beaconsfield, south-east of Fremantle in the south-western suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. The school ope ...

in Perth, Western Australia before signing with the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

organization as an undrafted free agent on August 18, 2004. He split time between all levels of the Twins organization, from Rookie League to AAA, as an organizational catcher until the Twins released him from the

New Britain Rock Cats The New Britain Rock Cats were a minor league baseball team that competed in the Eastern League. They were the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox for 12 years, the Minnesota Twins for 20 years and the Colorado Rockies for one. They played ...

in 2011. On January 9, 2012, de San Miguel signed a minor league contract with the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

following a strong showing in the ABL. He split time between the A+

Frederick Keys The Frederick Keys are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. The Keys are based in Frederick, Maryland. The franchise is named for "Star-Spangled Banner" writer Francis Scott Key, a native of Frederick County. A new team masco ...

, AA Bowie Baysox, and AAA

Norfolk Tides The Norfolk Tides are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. They are located in Norfolk, Virginia, and are named in nautical reference to the city's location on the Chesapea ...

, batting .239/.331/.399 and 6HRs in 63 games. He was invited to Spring Training with the Orioles in 2013, and spent the entire season in A+ Frederick, batting .240/.366/.421 with 10HRs in 65 games. He elected free agency on November 4, 2013. On January 13, 2014, de San Miguel signed a minor league contract with the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

. He was released before the season started on March 27, 2014. He spent the 2014 season as the starting catcher for the

Southern Maryland Blue Crabs The Southern Maryland Blue Crabs are an American professional baseball team based in Waldorf, Maryland. They are members of the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, an independent "partner league" of Major League Baseb ...

of the independent

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's ...

. He batted .203/.289/.332 with 5HR in 61 games for the Blue Crabs. On January 12, 2015, de San Miguel returned to the Twins organization, but appeared in only 3 games for Rochester, the Twins' AAA affiliate before suffering an injury. He elected free agency on November 6, 2015. On February 11, 2016, de San Miguel signed a minor league contract with the

, batting .187/.248/.264 in 30 games between AAA Omaha and AA Northwest Arkansas. The following year he hit .237/.310/.333 in 34 games. In 2018 and 2019, he was still signed as a player with the Royals, but rarely activated as a player on the phantom

injured list In Major League Baseball (MLB), the injured list (IL) is a method for teams to remove their injured players from the roster in order to summon healthy players. Before the 2019 season, it was known as the disabled list (DL). General guidelines ...

. He made no appearances in either season before electing free agency on November 4, 2019. On January 10, 2020, de San Miguel signed a new minor league deal with the

and was assigned to the

Northwest Arkansas Naturals The Northwest Arkansas Naturals are a Minor League Baseball team based in Springdale, Arkansas, Springdale, Arkansas. The team is a member of the Texas League, and serves as the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The ...

. On July 4, de San Miguel was added to the 60-man player pool. On November 2, 2020, de San Miguel elected free agency. On February 3, 2021, de San Miguel re-signed with the Royals on a minor league contract.

Australian Baseball League

De San Miguel was the starting catcher for the

of the

for six seasons from 2010 through 2015. In 2016, he joined the

. He is a career .270/.382/.452 hitter with 39HRs in 279 games in the ABL. He is a four-time ABL Champion with the Heat, who won in 2010-11, 2011–12, 2013–14, 2014–15, and with the

in 2019-20 and 2020-21 as a manager. de San Miguel was named MVP of the 2014-15 Championship Series. Records that belong to de San Miguel following his retirement in the 2019–20 Australian Baseball League season include games (386), plate appearances (1560), at-bats (1300), runs batted in (214), hit by pitch (39), as well as strikeouts (294), and grounded into double play (42). During the 2022–23 Australian Baseball League season, Tim Kennelly (baseball) broke his plate appearance, at-bats and RBI records.

Australian national team

In 2009, he was a provisional member of the

Australia national baseball team The Australian national baseball team represents Australia in international baseball tournaments and competitions. It is ranked as the top team in Oceania, and is the Oceanian Champion, having been awarded the title in 2007 when New Zealand wi ...

at the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Australia was eliminated in the first round of the tournament and placed 12th of 16 teams with a record of 1-2. De San Miguel did not play in the tournament. In 2013, he returned with the team for the

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to March 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike ...

, for which Australia automatically qualified. Australia finished in last place out of sixteen teams, having lost three games in the first round to Chinese Taipei, South Korea, and the Netherlands. De San Miguel went 0-for-3 with a strikeout against Korea, and replaced Matt Kennelly late in the game against the Netherlands, striking out in his only appearance. In 2016, de San Miguel caught for Australia in the

2017 World Baseball Classic – Qualifier 1 Qualifier 1 of the Qualifying Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic was held at Blacktown Baseball Stadium, Sydney, Australia from February 11 to 14, 2016. Qualifier 1 was a modified double-elimination tournament. The winners of Games 1 and ...

, which occurred February 11–14, 2016. Australia defeated the Philippines and South Africa twice to advance in the tournament. He appeared in all three games, going 2-for-11 with a walk and a strikeout. De San Miguel returned in 2017 to compete in the

World Baseball Classic The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...

with the

. Australia was eliminated in the first round, losing to both

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

. De San Miguel had a strong series, going 5-for-9 with one walk and three strikeouts. He hit a solo home run off of

Tomoyuki Sugano is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Career College career Sugano went to Tokai University, where he had a 37–4 win–loss record and a 0.57 earned run average (ERA). I ...

in the second inning of the first game against Japan. In 2018, he was selected exhibition series against Japan. On October 8, 2019, he was selected at the 2019 WBSC Premier12.

Coaching career

The Royals announced that they hired de San Miguel to their major league coaching staff as a strategist and

bullpen catcher The bullpen catcher is a member of a baseball team's staff, often a former professional player, who catches the ball for relief pitchers warming up before entering a game and starting pitchers before games. A bullpen catcher differentiates from a ...

before the 2022 season.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:de San Miguel, Allan 1988 births Living people Australian expatriate baseball players in the United States Bowie Baysox players Baseball catchers Baseball people from Western Australia Beloit Snappers players Fort Myers Miracle players Frederick Keys players Gulf Coast Twins players Melbourne Aces players New Britain Rock Cats players Norfolk Tides players Northwest Arkansas Naturals players Omaha Storm Chasers players Perth Heat players Rochester Red Wings players Southern Maryland Blue Crabs players Sportspeople from Perth, Western Australia 2013 World Baseball Classic players 2017 World Baseball Classic players