René Rafael Pinto Escobar (born November 2, 1996) is a Venezuelan 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 tea ...

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 ...

for the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. Since its inception ...

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).

Career

Pinto signed with the

as an international free agent on October 1, 2013. Pinto spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons with the Venezuelan Summer League Rays; hitting .264/.318/.347/.666 with 1 home run and 11 RBI in 14' and .323/.379/.552/.931 with 6 home runs and 38 RBI in 2015. He split the 2016 season between the

GCL Rays The Florida Complex League Rays are a minor league baseball team in Port Charlotte, Florida, competing as a Rookie-level team in the Florida Complex League as an affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Prior to 2021, the team was known as the Gulf Coast ...

and the Princeton Rays, hitting a combined .262/.304/.483/.788 with 8 home runs and 28 RBI. Pinto split the 2017 season between the GCL and the

Bowling Green Hot Rods The Bowling Green Hot Rods are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and play their home games at Bowling Green Ballpark, which open ...

, hitting a combined .290/.339/.396/.734 with 3 home runs and 39 RBI. He spent the 2018 season with the Charlotte Stone Crabs, hitting .301/.353/.407/.759 with 1 home run and 38 RBI. Pinto spent the 2019 season with the Montgomery Biscuits, hitting .235/.303/.354/.657 with 5 home runs and 30 RBI. He did not play in 2020 due to the cancellation of the Minor League Baseball season because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Pinto split the 2021 season between Montgomery and the

Durham Bulls The Durham Bulls are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. They are located in Durham, North Carolina, and play their home games at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which opened in ...

, hitting a combined .274/.325/.500/.825 with 20 home runs and 60 RBI. On November 7, 2021, Tampa Bay selected Pinto's contract to the 40-man roster. On April 22, 2022, Pinto was added to the Rays roster as a covid-replacement for Francisco Mejía. He made his MLB debut on April 26 against 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) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

. After Mike Zunino left the game with a left biceps injury, Pinto replaced him. In the same game, Pinto collected his first major league hit, a two-run home run off of Mariners reliever

Matt Koch Matthew David Koch (born November 2, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Colorado Rockies organization. He previously played in MLB for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Seattle Mariners, and for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippo ...

. He became the 10th player in Rays history to get a home run as his first MLB hit. He appeared in 25 games for Tampa Bay in his rookie campaign, hitting .213/.241/.325 with 2 home runs and 10 RBI. Pinto was optioned to Triple-A Durham to begin the 2023 season.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto, René 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Maracay Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States Major League Baseball players from Venezuela Major League Baseball catchers Tampa Bay Rays players Venezuelan Summer League Rays players Gulf Coast Rays players Princeton Rays players Navegantes del Magallanes players Bowling Green Hot Rods players Charlotte Stone Crabs players Montgomery Biscuits players Leones del Escogido players Durham Bulls players