July 13, 2003, Comiskey Park in Chicago. There was one Guillermo Quiroz catching for the World team in the All-Star Futures Game. Rewind to the previous year. Heading into the 2003 season, Quiroz’s lifetime minor league numbers were hardly impressive. In his career, he had hit .224, with a 128:319 walk to strikeout ratio. Along with Blue Jays hopeful Alexis Rios, the AA New Havens Ravens’ (now New Hampshire Fisher Cats) coaching staff took the two players under their wings and taught them the value of swinging at strikes. Their patience and hard work were rewarded, as both will be starting the season in AAA Syracuse after having career years last year with the Ravens.
Of all the top 5 Blue Jays prospects, Quiroz took the most difficult route to get to where he is today. The Blue Jays signed him to a contract in 1998 as a free agent from Venezuela, with a lucritive $1.5 million signing bonus. His professional career started out well enough with the Medicine Hat Blue Jays in class-A rookie ball in the Pioneer League. He posted decent offensive numbers for a defensive catcher; he hit .221 in 63 games and even showed some pop in his bat. He stroked 9 home runs that year in just 208 at bats. This would definitely be a sign to come.
The next year, Quiroz took a dive. His offensive numbers dwindled as he went from the Medicine Hat Blue Jays to the Hagerstown Suns. In 2000, Quiroz hit .162 in 43 games before he was shipped off to the Queens Kings in the New York-Penn League. There Guillermo improved drastically. He bumped his average up to .224, and managed to drive in 29 runs. On a side note, he even swiped the first base of his minor league career. He was caught stealing twice. Next year, he joined the Charleston Alley Cats in the South Atlantic (Sally) League, and again dipped under the "Mendoza Line." He hit .199 in 82 games, but his defensive presence was enough to keep him moving through the Jays system.
In 2002, things finally started to come around for the young Jays catcher. He started the year in the Florida State League with the Dunedin Blue Jays. There, his offensive production finally started to earn his hefty signing bonus. He hit .260 in 111 games, drove in 68 runs, hit 12 home runs, and scored 50. He accomplished all of this in just 411 at bats. One day, the phone rang in Dunedin. Finally, the break Quiroz has been waiting for his entire career. He was being called all the way up to AAA to play with the Syracuse SkyChiefs.
He would play in 13 games there, and did quite well considering the jump he had made. In 45 at bats, he hit .222, drove in 6 and even managed to hammer a home run. Next year, playing the full season with the AA New Haven Ravens, Quiroz had his minor league breakout career year. Along with throwing out 57% of potential base stealers, Guillermo finally had added offence to his arsenal. In 369 at bats, Quiroz hit 20 home runs, drove in 79 runs and hit a total of 47 extra base hits. Not to mention his average soared to .282 in 108 games. Over the winter Quiroz played for Zulia, his hometown team in Venezuela. He hit .299 with 11 HR and 24 RBIs in 44 games.
Now the Majors are so close Quiroz can smell it. He’s an injury away from being called up to Toronto. He is behind only Kevin Cash on the Jays depth chart. If not sooner, we expect to see Guillermo Quiroz make his major league debut for the Blue Jays this year in September. He’ll start the season in Syracuse, and most experts say once he is called up to Toronto, he won’t be sent down for a long, long time. Only time will tell how the "catcher of the future" fares out.