Miguel Mejia (minors02)

Miguel Antonio Mejia Torres

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 210 lb.

• School Florida International University, Pensacola State College
• High School Puerto Rico Baseball Academy

• Born January 19, 1988 in Brooklyn, NY USA

BR register page

Biographical Information

Miguel Mejia has pitched in the US (reaching AAA), Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Japan, Mexico and Venezuela and has been on the Puerto Rican national team in three different decades. All this despite was being undrafted out of college.

Mejia is the oldest of 11 kids. He went 20-1 in junior college, making All-Conference both years. He was signed by the Florida Marlins as an undrafted free agent; the scout was Rolando Casanova.

The right-hander made his pro debut with the GCL Tigers, going 1 2/3 shutout innings. He then was promoted to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, giving up two runs in four innings. That winter, he was 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA for the Gigantes de Carolina of the Puerto Rican League. He also pitched for the Puerto Rican team in the 2009 Baseball World Cup, going 1-0 with no runs in 5 2/3 IP. He got the win over the Cuban national team (with a 1-2-3 inning), which had won most of the prior Cups, topping Yadier Pedroso.

Mejia split 2010 between Lakeland (2-1, Sv, 4.91 in 15 G), the West Michigan Whitecaps (1-0, 4.05 in 7 G) and the Connecticut Tigers (3-2, 4 Sv, 1.02 in 13 G). He also was with Puerto Rico for the 2010 Pan American Games Qualifier; they won a spot in the 2011 Pan American Games and 2011 Baseball World Cup. He allowed 8 runs (all earned) in 8 innings in the event, tying Julio Ráudez and Angel Antonio Cuan for third in earned runs allowed. In the winter, he was 0-1 with a 1.74 ERA in 19 games for Carolina, allowing only 11 hits in 20 2/3 IP.

He remained busy in 2011. Having been let loose by Detroit, he started with the independent Bridgeport Bluefish and had a 1-3, 7.88 record for them. Despite those troubles, the Florida Marlins picked him up. He split the rest of the summer between the Jamestown Jammers (2-1, Sv, 4.00 in 6 G) and Greensboro Grasshoppers (1-2, 2.63 in 9 G). He allowed 3 runs in 4 innings in the 2011 Baseball World Cup and 2 runs in 2 2/3 IP in the 2011 Pan American Games. He concluded the year with the Criollos de Caguas in Puerto Rico, posting a 1.57 ERA in 12 relief appearances.

The Brooklyn-born hurler was with Puerto Rico for the 2012 Haarlem Baseball Week. It is unclear if he pitched that summer otherwise. He had a rocky winter with Caguas (1-2, Sv, 6.00 in 15 G) but threw four shutout innings (with only one hit) in the 2013 Caribbean Series.

While it looked like things were not going great for his career heading into the Caribbean Series, he would still be pitching a decade later. He was 5-9 with a 3.26 ERA for the Brother Elephants in the 2013 CPBL. He tied Wei-Lun Pan for 5th in losses but only one qualifier (Andy Sisco) had a better ERA (he did not pitch enough to qualify). He was also 6th in K, between Sisco and Chen-Hua Lin. He also broke Yueh-Ping Lin's record for fastest pitch in Taiwan, later broken by Enderson Franco. He had a strong winter, going 2-0 with a save and a 1.62 ERA, fanning 21 in 16 2/3 IP while only walking 4.

Moving to the Lamigo Monkeys, he dazzled in the 2014 CPBL: 5-1, 35 Sv, 1.24 ERA in 55 G. He led in saves, 8 ahead of Hung-Chih Kuo, and was 4th in appearances. He appeared in the 2014 CPBL All-Star Game. He had a string of 26 consecutive scoreless appearances, a CPBL record before Hsuan-Ta Liu broke it. His 34 straight saves without a blown save is still the CPBL record as of 2023. { He did well in the 2014 Taiwan Series to beat his old Elephant teammates, closing out Mitch Talbot's 3-0 win in the opener, saving Yi-Cheng Wang's Game 2 win and then working two innings in the clincher, with 4 K. He pitched one shutout inning for Caguas in the winter.

Continuing his journeys, he signed with the Seibu Lions in Japan. He struggled with their big club in 2015 (10 H, 6 R, 6 ER in3 2/3 IP) but did well in the minors (2-3, 10 Sv, 2.41 in 24 G). He tied Takahiro Irino for 3rd in the Eastern League in saves. He had another good winter with Caguas (1 R in 10 2/3 IP; 0-1). Reinforcing the Cangrejeros de Santurce for the 2016 Caribbean Series, he faced the minimum over 2 1/3 IP, striking out three.

His run of work in Asia and the Caribbean won him his first look in the US in five years. Signed by the Chicago Cubs, he appeared with the Tennessee Smokies (1-2, Sv, 2.70 in 8 G) and Iowa Cubs (1-1, 5.70 in 30 G), striking out 60 in 60 2/3 IP. He was 1-2 with a 1.64 ERA in 22 games for the 2016-2017 Criollos, walking only three in 22 innings. Only J.C. Romero made more appearances. He also pitched three fine innings in the 2017 Caribbean Series, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out two and yielding no runs. In the title game, he relieved Andrés Santiago in the 9th of a scoreless battle with the Águilas de Mexicali. He went two scoreless to get the win over Jake Sanchez as Caguas scored in the 10th. That gave him the win as Puerto Rico won its first Caribbean Series in 16 years.

Mejia closed out Puerto Rico's 9-3 win over Italy in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Relieving Hiram Burgos, he got John Andreoli looking. Alessandro Vaglio singled then Mario Chiarini struck out and Daniel Descalso was retired to end it. It was his lone appearance of the WBC as Puerto Rico finished second, their best yet. He was 2-0 with a 6.55 ERA in 14 games for Iowa in 2017 to end his time in the CUbs chain. That winter, he pitched in both Puerto Rico (1-0, 6 Sv, 4.00 in 8 G for Caguas) and Mexico (1-3, 2.12 in 35 G for the Yaquis de Obregón). He was 5th in the Mexican Pacific League in appearances (between Carlos Bustamante and Manny Acosta) and led the Hurricane Maria-shortened Puerto Rican League in saves (no one else had more than two). He was superb when Caguas won the 2018 Caribbean Series, allowing one hit and one walk in five shutout innings. He had saves in all three appearances - saving Luis Cruz's win over Mexico, Robby Rowland's victory over Venezuela and Santiago's win over the Dominicans in the finale. He led the Series in saves, one ahead of Raidel Martínez and Josh Judy.

The veteran hurler signed with the Diablos Rojos del México for 2018; he was 2-0 with two saves and a 4.70 ERA in 23 games. He split the winter between Caguas (1-0, Sv, 1 R in 3 IP) and Venezuela's Leones del Caracas (2-0, Sv, 1 H, 0 R in 5 IP). In 2019, he had a 1-4, 4.68 record with 8 saves for the Piratas de Campeche in Mexico. He made one appearance for Puerto Rico in the 2019 Premier 12, closing out a 7-1 loss to Venezuela. Replacing Freddie Cabrera, he allowed a single to Luis Castro but Carlos Rivero hit into a double play. José Godoy struck out to end the inning.

He was 2-2 with four saves and a 5.17 ERA for the 2019-2020 Criollos. He tied Miguel Romero for third in saves. He moved to Santurce for the 2021-2022 season and was 1-0 with a 2.50 ERA in 15 outings but he fell to 2-1, 5.54 in 17 games for them in 2022-2023. He allowed six hits but no runs in 4 1/3 IP in the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games, making it three decades with appearances for the Puerto Rican national team. He was their only hurler to have a 0.00 ERA in more than an inning of work. He next was with them for the 2023 Caribbean Baseball Cup, allowing two runs in two innings in a loss to Cuba's Jonathan Carbó; his staffmates fared worse that day, allowing 14 runs in the other 4 innings of a mercy rule loss.