Cristian Antonio Guzmán (born March 21, 1978 in
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is a baseball
player who has played shortstop in the major leagues
for the Minnesota Twins and Washington Nationals.
Guzmán was acquired by Minnesota in 1998 from the
New York Yankees organization as part of the Chuck
Knoblauch trade.
Guzmán's best year was in 2001. He was named to the
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 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 his average up to .219.
Guzman was sidelined the entire 2006 campaign due to
a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery, but
returned in 2007 as the Nationals starting shortstop
following the trade of second baseman José Vidro to
the Seattle Mariners and the move of Felipe López to
second base. However, he injured his hamstring on
the first day of the regular season. He was on the
disabled list until May 7, 2007. When he returned he
began what looked like could be his best season
ever. Batting leadoff, he was hitting .329 (second
on the team), and despite missing almost half of the
sesason through late June, was third in the league
with six triples. But on June 24 Guzman was injured
while tagging out a would-be base-stealer, and had
surgery the next day to repair a torn thumb
ligament, sidelining him for the rest of the 2007
season.
