Williams Alexander Jerez ( born May 16, 1992) is a Dominican

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 ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who is a free agent. He was a 2nd round selection in the

2011 MLB Draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the first ...

by the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

. He has played 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) for the

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 ha ...

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yor ...

, and

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Early life

Jerez was born in

Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (; '' en, James, son of Zebedee, Saint James of the Knights''), often shortened to Santiago, is the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic and the fourth-largest city in the Caribbean by population. It is the cap ...

in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

. During his childhood, he was primarily a pitcher. In 2009 at the age of 17, Jerez along with his father and sister moved to

Bushwick, Brooklyn Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

in New York City. That year, he was discovered in a local park by a former minor league player. Initially attempting to enroll at Gregorio Luperón High School in Manhattan, Jerez later enrolled at

Grand Street Campus The Grand Street Campus is a building used as the home for three high schools in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. The current building at 850 Grand Street opened in 1981; its identity as the Grand Street Campus dates to 1996. It is current ...

Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...

. Jerez played

center field A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the Baseball positions, baseball and softball fielding position between Left fielder, left field and Right fielder, right field. In the numberi ...

at Grand Street for two seasons. He hit .519 with four home runs and 19 RBIs his first season. During his senior year he hit .692 with five home runs and 26 stolen bases, leading Grand Street to the 2011

Public Schools Athletic League The Public Schools Athletic League, known by the abbreviation PSAL, is an organization that promotes student athletics in the public schools of New York City. It was founded in 1903 to provide and maintain a sports program for students enrolled in ...

(PSAL) Class A semi-finals. Jerez won the PSAL Wingate Award, given to the top senior in each sport. He also played summer baseball for Hank's Yanks, a team sponsored by

Hank Steinbrenner Henry George Steinbrenner III (April 2, 1957 – April 14, 2020) was an American businessman who was a part owner and co-chairman of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He was the older brother of the team's principal own ...

. Jerez, however, drew controversy with some opposing coaches believing him to be older than high-school age. Coming out of high school, Jerez was considered a five-tool prospect, and was ranked among the top 100 prospects in the nation by both

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

. His skill set drew comparisons to

Carlos Beltrán Carlos Iván Beltrán (; born April 24, 1977) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as an outfielder from 1998 to 2017 for the Kansas City Royals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, San Fra ...

. He received a baseball scholarship to

San Jacinto College San Jacinto College is a public community college in the Greater Houston with its campuses in Pasadena and Houston, Texas. Established in 1961, San Jacinto College originally consisted of the independent school districts (ISD) of Channelview, De ...

in Texas.

Career

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox selected Jerez in the second round of the

, signing him with a bonus of $443,700. He was the highest draft pick out of New York City since pitcher

Jason Marquis Jason Scott Marquis (; born August 21, 1978) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Washington Nationals, Arizona ...

in 1996. Jerez started his career as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

, but was converted to a pitcher during extended spring training in 2014. He made his debut with the

Gulf Coast League Red Sox The Florida Complex League Red Sox are a professional baseball team competing in the rookie-level Florida Complex League (FCL) of Minor League Baseball. The team is owned and operated by the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB). Prior ...

in 2012 and collected hits in 11 of 12 games during one early-season stretch, batting as high as .340, but eventually he tapered off. He finished the year batting .248/.285/.310 with five

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s, three triples, and just six walks in 32 games. In 2012, Jerez started 32 games with the Short-Season A

Lowell Spinners The Lowell Spinners were a baseball team based in Lowell, Massachusetts. From 1996 to 2020, they were members of Minor League Baseball's New York–Penn League (NYPL) as the Class A Short Season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. With Major League ...

before missing the remainder of the season with hand injury. Prior to injury, Jerez batted .241 (20-for-83)/.276/.277 with five

RBIs 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 bat ...

and three stolen bases. Then in 2013, he appeared in 38 games and hit a paltry .176/.203/.235 in 38 games while playing right and center field for Lowell. But Jerez turned his career around after moving from outfield to pitcher in 2014. In that season, he posted a 3–1 record with a 2.22

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

and one save coming out of bullpen for the GCL Red Sox. He ended the season at Lowell, going 1–1 with a 4.50 ERA. In 2015 Jerez joined the Low A

Greenville Drive The Greenville Drive are a Minor League Baseball team based in Greenville, South Carolina. They are the High-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox and are a member of the South Atlantic League. They play their home games at Fluor Field at the West En ...

, where he went 3–1 with a 2.06 ERA and three saves,

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

43 in 39⅓ innings of work. He then gained a promotion to High A

Salem Red Sox The Salem Red Sox are a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (MLB), based in Salem, an independent city adjacent to Roanoke, Virginia. The team competes at the Single-A level in the Carolina League. Ho ...

and was more dominant, posting a 1–0 record with a 0.73 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 12 innings. The

Portland Sea Dogs The Portland Sea Dogs are a Minor League Baseball team based in Portland, Maine, playing in the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League. Established in 1994, the Sea Dogs are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red ...

would be the fifth stop in just a year and a half for Jerez, as he collected scoreless outings in 13 of 22 appearances since his Double-A debut on June 24, 2015. Overall, he went 5–3 with a 2.54 ERA and four saves in a career-high 41 games during the three stints. Jerez was added to the Red Sox

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, and ...

in November 2015. He remained with the Sea Dogs through 2016, featuring a 1–6 mark with a 4.71 ERA in 40 games, striking out 65 and walking 30 in 65 innings, while earning a selection to the Eastern League All-Star Game. He opened 2017 at Portland, where he went 2–0 with four saves and 3.10 ERA in 29 games before joining the Triple-A

Pawtucket Red Sox The Pawtucket Red Sox, known colloquially as the PawSox, were a professional minor league baseball club based in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. From 1973 to 2020, the team was a member of the International League and served as the Triple-A affiliate ...

in the month of August. He appeared in nine games with the PawSox, going 0–2 with a 3.75 ERA in 12 innings. He finished the year rated as the Red Sox' No. 21 prospect, according to MLB.com.2017 MLB Prospects Watch – 2017 Boston Red Sox Top 30 Prospects Watch
''MLB.com.'' Retrieved on September 8, 2017. Jerez began the 2018 season with Triple-A Pawtucket.

Los Angeles Angels

On July 31, 2018, the Red Sox traded Jerez and pitcher Ty Buttrey to the

for second baseman

Ian Kinsler Ian Michael Kinsler ( he, איאן קינסלר; born June 22, 1982) is an American-Israeli former professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for ...

. On August 7, 2018, the Angels called up Jerez and he made his major league debut pitching two scoreless innings against the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

. For 2018 with the Angels, he was 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA, and 15 strikeouts in 15 innings.

San Francisco Giants

On March 26, 2019, Jerez was traded to the

in exchange for

Chris Stratton Christopher Lee Stratton (born August 22, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Angels, and Pittsbu ...

Pittsburgh Pirates

On September 13, 2019, Jerez was claimed off waivers by the

. Jerez was outrighted to AAA on November 27. Jerez elected free agency after the 2020 season on September 28, 2020.

Seattle Mariners

On May 21, 2021, Jerez signed a minor league contract with 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 ...

. In 19 appearances for the Triple-A

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. ...

, Jerez struggled to an 11.32 ERA with 23 strikeouts. On August 5, 2021, Jerez was released by the Mariners.

Staten Island FerryHawks

On April 20, 2022, Jerez signed with the

Staten Island FerryHawks The Staten Island FerryHawks are an American minor-league professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Staten Island. They are a member of the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a "partner leag ...

of the

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 ...

. Jerez made 6 appearances for the FerryHawks, struggling to an 0-2 record and 19.29 ERA with 4 strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched. He became a free agent following the season.

Charleston Dirty Birds

On April 7, 2023, Jerez signed with the

Charleston Dirty Birds The Charleston Dirty Birds are an American professional baseball team based in Charleston, West Virginia. They are a member of the South Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a partner league of Major League Baseball. The ...

of the

. In 31 games for Charleston, he struggled to a 7.29 ERA with 39 strikeouts in innings pitched. On July 31, Jerez was released by the Dirty Birds.https://www.atlanticleague.com/stats/transactions/

Player profile

Jerez throws a fastball in the low 90s, topping out at 97 miles per hour. He also throws a slider and changeup, both with low 80s velocity.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jerez, Williams 1992 births Estrellas Orientales players Greenville Drive players Living people Lowell Spinners players Los Angeles Angels players Major League Baseball pitchers Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Pawtucket Red Sox players Pittsburgh Pirates players Portland Sea Dogs players Sacramento River Cats players Salem Red Sox players Salt Lake Bees players San Francisco Giants players Tacoma Rainiers players People from Bushwick, Brooklyn Eastern District High School alumni Staten Island FerryHawks players Charleston Dirty Birds players