Jose DeLeon, the Dominican former right-handed pitcher who played in illustrious Major League Baseball with multiple teams including the Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals, Montreal Expos, and the Philadelphia Phillies for 13 seasons, has passed away due to cancer.
He was 63 and made his debut in MLB with the Pirates in 1983. He also finished seventh in the NL Rookie of the Year voting as per NY Post. Jose DeLeon in 1989 had a career-high sixteen wins and his ERA was 3.05.
The same year he was also the NL strikeout leader as well. He played with the Pirates from 1983 to 1986 and then went to the Chicago White Sox with whom he played from 1986 to 1987.
In the 1979 amateur draft, DeLeon was a third-round draft pick of the Pirates. He played with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1988 to 1992. DeLeon then spent one year with the Philadelphia Phillies and then from 1993 to 1995 played once again with Chicago White Sox.
https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1761835856581542111
Rest in Paradise Jose.
De Leon pitched for the Cardinals from 1988 to 1992.
His best season with the team was 1989 when he went 16-12 with 201 K's and a 3.05 ERA over 244.2 innings. #STLCards https://t.co/xEziKFbFnQ pic.twitter.com/tCSsONkLZi
— Augie Nash (@AugieNash) February 25, 2024
His last team was the Montreal Expos. DeLeon was also the other second pitcher of the Cardinals to strike out 200 batters in back-to-back seasons. His career strikeouts were 1,594 and win-loss record of 86-119 in 415 games played.
