1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Short Stop Mike Caruso

 

The White Sox made a big trade with the Giants at the trade deadline in 1997, with 9 players changing uniforms. The big names at the time all moved out West - the Giants acquired Danny Darwin, who would finish his career in San Fran the following season at the age of 42. Wilson Alvarez, who became a free agent and signed up with the expansion Devil Rays, and Roberto Hernandez, who took the same path to free agency to Tampa. For a pair of rentals and a savvy veteran, the Giants sent 6 prospects to Chicago. It was dubbed the "White Flag" trade, with the Sox just 3.5 games behind Cleveland at the time. Fans felt that trading your ace and your closer in the middle of a pennant race was giving up, and they probably are not wrong. 

Mike Caruso was the player to make the most of it all - he turned a vacancy at short (Ozzie Guillen left for free agency) into a Topps All-Star Rookie Cup!

The trade makes more sense when Caruso made the team out of Spring Training in 1998. His previous highest level was single A, but the Sox didn't have a better answer at the position. The team needed a boost to their prospect pool, and Caruso was diving off the high dive with a cannonball. He swiped 22 bases and hit .305 his rookie year. That was good enough for 3rd in the ROY balloting, and he was the answer to several trivia questions - the youngest ChiSox player on Opening Day since 1959, the first rookie to hit .300 or better for the team since Minnie Miñoso, and made many onlookers ready to compare him to a "young Ozzie Guillen."  

Caruso was born in Queens, NY, but attended Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL (yes, the same high school that later was the site of an infamous shooting). He was a 2nd round draft pick of the Giants, and immediately made an impact in his first pro season. Playing for Single A Bellingham, he made the All-Star squad, stealing 24 bases and hitting .292. Baseball America had him in the top 50 prospects (#34) the following year. He started his second year hot - A .333 average before the trade to Chicago. He hit just .227 in 28 games for Winston-Salem after that, but his contact and speed tools were very advanced. With Ozzie Guillen departing following the 1997 season, the SS position was wide open.

So... what happened? He hit over .300 his rookie season, plays a primo position, and still is just 22 years old. It turned out that 1999 would be his final full season in the big leagues. His average dropped to .250 and he was caught stealing more times than he was successful. The fact was that at 22, his defense wasn't fully polished either - he had 35 errors his rookie season, and 24 in 1999. He would be supplanted at short by veteran Jose Valentin, and would be sent down to AAA to work on the finer points of middle infield defense.

He would play several years in the minors for the Sox, Rays, Royals, and Reds. He would even get one more crack at the majors, going 2-20 with the Royals towards the end of the 2002 season. He was out of baseball completely for two years after that. Caruso then made a comeback attempt in the Independent leagues and played for various teams throughout the independent minor league circuits until 2009. Here's a great article from the Lancaster County Paper, which details the journey of Caruso from phenom to journeyman, written in 2008. "I didn't realize what I did until it was over."

Do you have any Mike Caruso memories? I'd love to read them in the comments below. 

Thanks for reading!