Jhonny Antonio Peralta (born May 28, 1982) is a Dominican former professional baseball shortstop who played 15 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). The Cleveland Indians signed him as an amateur free agent in his native Dominican Republic in 1999, and he made his major league debut for the Indians on June 12, 2003. He subsequently played for the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. A solid hitter with power, Peralta has rated average defensively. He throws and bats right-handed, stands , and weighs .
Peralta was the 2004 Indians Minor League Player of the Year as well as the International League Most Valuable Player for one of Cleveland's minor league affiliates, the Buffalo Bisons, after batting .326 with 44 doubles, 15 home runs and 86 runs batted in. Buffalo was also the International League champion that same season.
Each year from 2005 through 2015, Peralta reached at least 100 hits, and double figures in both home runs and doubles. He is a three-time MLB All-Star selection. He set single-season home run records for shortstops for two franchises – for the Indians in 2005, and the Cardinals in 2014. While a member of the Tigers in 2013, he served a 50-game suspension for his role in the Biogenesis performance-enhancing drug scandal. In 2017 he signed with the Boston Red Sox, but was released less than a month later without having played in a game for the team.
Playing career (1999–2017)
Minor leagues (1999–2004) The Cleveland Indians signed Peralta as an amateur free agent in 1999 and assigned him to the Dominican Summer League Indians that season. Peralta batted .303 with a .398 on-base percentage (OBP) and a .514 slugging percentage (SLG); 41 percent of his hits went for extra bases. Those figures were boosted by an unsustainable .373 batting average on balls in play (BABIP). Nevertheless, the Indians promoted him aggressively.
In 2000, the 18-year-old Peralta played for the Columbus RedStixx, the Class A affiliate of the Indians in the South Atlantic League. He batted .241 in 106 games, playing all but one game at shortstop (the other was at third base). The following season he advanced to the Kinston Indians, the Cleveland Indians High-A affiliate in the Carolina League. In 125 games, he batted .240. In 2002, Peralta moved up to the Double-A Akron Aeros, where he hit .281. In 2003, he batted .257 in 63 games with the Buffalo Bisons. After his 2003 call up to the major leagues, Peralta began to draw widespread attention for his hitting with the Aeros and Bisons.
In 2004, he batted .326 with 15 home runs (HR) and 86 runs batted in (RBI). He also scored 109 runs and stroked 44 doubles, the most ever in the Bisons' modern era, followed by 39 for Kevin Pillar in 2014. This offensive leap helped him win the International League Most Valuable Player Award that year and helped Buffalo win the Governors' Cup as the International League champions. He also received the Lou Boudreau Award as the Indians' 2004 Minor League Player of the Year.
Cleveland Indians (2003–10)
Peralta made his Major League debut with Cleveland on June 12, 2003, filling in for the injured Gold Glove shortstop Omar Vizquel. He finished with a .227 batting average with four home runs and 21 RBIs. The next season, despite his accomplishments at the Triple-A level, Peralta saw just 25 at bats (AB) in eight games at the major league level due to the presence of perennial fan-favorite Vizquel, who left the Indians as a free agent following the 2004 season.
Peralta became Cleveland's full-time starting shortstop early in 2005 and batted .292. On July 3, he became affixed in the Indians' third slot in the batting order. Cleveland then won 23 of their next 33 games to put them one game behind the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics in the Wild Card race late in August. He joined Woodie Held as the only shortstops in Indians history to hit at least 20 home runs. His 24 home runs and 78 RBI set records for an Indians shortstop.
On March 10, 2006, Peralta agreed to a five-year contract with an option for a sixth year to stay with the Indians until the 2011 season. However, his 2006 season saw a decline both offensively and defensively from the previous season. At the start of spring training in 2007, it was revealed that Peralta suffered from vision problems in 2006 and had corrective LASIK eye surgery to deal with it.
After breaking an 0 for 8 skid on May 1, 2009, against the Detroit Tigers, Peralta's 86th career home run with the Indians broke the team record for shortstops that Woodie Held held. His solo home run provided the margin of victory for Cleveland in a 6–5 score.