Luis Adan Valbuena (November 30, 1985 – December 6, 2018) was a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

infielder. He played eleven seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB), from 2008 through 2018, for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team ...

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team h ...

. While primarily a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

, Valbuena also played second base and first base. He was killed in a car crash in 2018 in Venezuela caused by bandits in an attempted robbery.

Early life

Valbuena grew up in Sucre, a municipality in the Venezuelan state of

Zulia Zulia State ( es, Estado Zulia, ; Wayuu: ''Mma’ipakat Suuria'') is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. The state capital is Maracaibo. As of the 2011 census, it has a population of 3,704,404, the largest population among Venezuela's states. It ...

. He was raised by a single mother named Nelly, who was the president of the local youth baseball league. Valbuena's older brother and several uncles helped him learn to play baseball.

Professional career

Seattle Mariners

Valbuena began his professional career in the

organization in 2005. He was first promoted to the major leagues on September 1, 2008, from the Mariners' Triple-A team, the

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, which opened in 1960 ...

Cleveland Indians

On December 10, 2008, Valbuena was traded to the

in a three-team trade that sent

Franklin Gutiérrez Franklin Rafael Gutiérrez (born February 21, 1983), nicknamed "Guti", is a Venezuelan former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers. While pri ...

to Seattle. Valbuena hit his first major league home run off of

Bartolo Colón Bartolo Colón (born May 24, 1973), nicknamed "Big Sexy," is a Dominican-American professional baseball pitcher. He has played for 11 different Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the Cleveland Indians (1997–2002), Montreal Expos (2002), Chicago ...

on June 7, 2009. Luis Valbuena

In July 2011, the Indians optioned Valbuena to Triple-A Columbus, to make room for the promotion of rookie second baseman

Jason Kipnis Jason Michael Kipnis (born April 3, 1987; nicknamed "Kip") is an American professional baseball second baseman who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs. He attended Glenbrook N ...

. In August 2011, Valbuena was recalled after Kipnis was put on the disabled list with an oblique injury. He was designated for assignment and removed from the 40-man roster on November 18. On November 26, he was traded to the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

for cash considerations.

Chicago Cubs

On April 4, 2012, Valbuena was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs after being optioned by the Blue Jays. He was outrighted to the minors on April 7. Valbuena was called up from the Triple-A Iowa Cubs on June 14. Valbuena played 108 games for Chicago in 2013, hitting .218 with 12 home runs and 37

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBIs). The next year, Valbuena's batting average increased to .249 over 149 games and he had 16 home runs and 51 RBIs.Luis Valbuena Statistics and History

Baseball-Reference.com Baseball-Reference is a website providing baseball statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. The site is often used by major media organizations and baseball broadcasters as a source for statistics. It offers a variety of advan ...

. Retrieved April 10, 2015. By June 2014, Fangraphs noted that Valbuena was hitting fastballs well in the lower, outer portions of the

strike zone In baseball, the strike zone is the volume of space through which a pitch must pass in order to be called a strike even if the batter does not swing. The strike zone is defined as the volume of space above home plate and between the batter's k ...

, which had been a weakness for him in previous years.

Houston Astros

On January 19, 2015, the Cubs traded Valbuena and

Dan Straily Daniel Steven Straily (born December 1, 1988) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). The Oakland Athletics selected Straily in the 24th round of the 2009 Major League Baseball ...

to the Houston Astros for

Dexter Fowler William Dexter Fowler (born March 22, 1986) is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinal ...

. At the time of the trade, Valbuena was projected as the Astros' starting third baseman for 2015.Dexter Fowler trade: Meet Luis Valbuena, the Astros' newest infielder
''Crawfish Boxes''. Retrieved April 10, 2015. Valbuena's average dropped to .224 in 2015, but he set a career-high with 25 home runs. With

Jed Lowrie Jed Carlson Lowrie (born April 17, 1984) is an American professional baseball infielder who is currently a free agent. He has previously played in MLB for the Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros, Oakland Athletics and New York Mets. Early life Lo ...

coming off the disabled list and

Carlos Correa Carlos Javier Correa Oppenheimer Jr. (born September 22, 1994) is a Puerto Rican professional baseball shortstop who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, who selected him first overall in th ...

taking over the primary shortstop position, Valbuena was forced to share some of the first base duties along with Chris Carter and utility player Marwin González in order to get some playing time. At the beginning of the 2016 season, Valbuena was the starting third baseman for the Astros. He began to split playing time between first and third base. With the call-up of Astros prospect Alex Bregman, Valbuena saw more playing time at first base.

Los Angeles Angels

On January 24, 2017, Valbuena signed a two-year contract with the

. Valbuena split time during the season between third base and first base. He ended the season hitting a career low .199 with 22 home runs and a career high 65 RBIs. Valbuena was designated for assignment by the Angels on August 5, 2018. He hit .199 for the second straight season, finishing with nine home runs and 33 RBIs. He was released on August 7, 2018. For the season, he had the slowest baserunning sprint speed of all major league third basemen, at 24.1 feet/second.Statcast Sprint Speed Leaderboard , baseballsavant.com
/ref>

Death

On December 6, 2018, Valbuena, José Castillo, and Carlos Rivero were in a car in

Yaracuy Yaracuy State ( es, link=no, Estado Yaracuy, ;) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is bordered by Falcón in the north, in the west by Lara, in the south by Portuguesa and Cojedes and in the east by Cojedes and Carabobo. Its geograp ...

driven by Rivero's chauffeur when the group was ambushed by highway robbers. The players were members of Venezuelan winter team

Cardenales de Lara The Cardenales de Lara ( en, Lara Cardinals) is a baseball team in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. Founded in 1942 and based in Barquisimeto, the ''Cardenales'' have won six domestic titles, including back-to-back in 1998 and 1999, a ...

, and were returning from a game played on the day of the crash. The driver attempted to avoid them but the vehicle struck a rock and overturned, killing Valbuena and Castillo. Four men were arrested in connection to the incident after being found in possession of the players' property.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valbuena, Luis 1985 births 2018 deaths Arizona League Cubs players Cardenales de Lara players Chicago Cubs players Cleveland Indians players Columbus Clippers players Everett AquaSox players Houston Astros players Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino players Iowa Cubs players Kane County Cougars players Los Angeles Angels players Major League Baseball infielders Major League Baseball players from Venezuela People from Zulia Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Rainiers players Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States Road incident deaths in Venezuela West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx players Wisconsin Timber Rattlers players