Cristian Guzmán

Cristian Antonio Guzmán (born March 21, 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican baseball player who plays shortstop for the Washington Nationals. Guzmán was acquired by the Minnesota Twins in 1998 from the New York Yankees organization as part of the Chuck Knoblauch trade. In 2001, Guzmán was named to the AL All-Star team and posted career bests with 10 home runs and a .302 batting average. He was a key part of the Twins teams t... more

Cristian Antonio Guzmán (born March 21, 1978 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican baseball player who plays shortstop for the Washington Nationals. Guzmán was acquired by the Minnesota Twins in 1998 from the New York Yankees organization as part of the Chuck Knoblauch trade. In 2001, Guzmán was named to the AL All-Star team and posted career bests with 10 home runs and a .302 batting average. He was a key part of the Twins teams that won three consecutive American League Central titles from 2002-2004. While a Twin, he led the American League in triples in 2000 (20), 2001 (14) and 2003 (14). His total of 20 in 2000 was only the tenth time a player had reached that number in the prior 70 years. He signed a $16.8 million, four-year contract with the Washington Nationals for the 2005 season but then proceeded to have the worst year of his career. As the full-time shortstop, he was batting .192 at the end of August, but rallied in September, hitting .325, which helped bring... less