Baltimore Orioles Top 5 All-Time Leaders in Batting Average
By Ben Palmer
2. Miguel Tejada – .305 career batting average
Miguel Tejada was a pretty amazing player for awhile. He started his career with the Athletics in 1997, but things didn’t really pick up for him until the 2000 season when he slashed .275/.349/.479 with 30 home runs, 105 runs, and 115 RBIs.
His best year was 2002 though when he won his first and only MVP award. Playing for the Athletics, he slashed .308/.354/.508 with 34 home runs, 108 runs, and 131 RBIs.
After leaving the A’s for free agency following the 2003 season, Tejada signed a six-year, $72 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles and played as their everyday shortstop from 2004 to 2007, with a brief minor-league-only return in 2010 and 2012.
He also spent two years with the Houston Astros, one year with the San Francisco Giants, and one year with the Kansas City Royals before leaving the major leagues.
Tejada played great for the Orioles, with his best year coming in his first year in Baltimore, as he slashed .311/.360/.534 with 34 home runs, 107 runs, and 150 RBIs, arguably better than his MVP year.
He finished his career as a six-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger, not to mention his MVP award.
His career wasn’t without controversy though. After Orioles slugger Rafael Palmeiro tested positive for steroids, he implicated that it may have been given to him by Tejada, however that was never proven.
But later on, pitcher Jason Grimsley told federal investigators that Tejada had used anabolic steroids, and in 2007, Tejada was named in the Mitchell Report as being connected to steroids.
In 2009, he was charged with lying to Congress about the use of steroids in baseball, specifically about his connections to Palmeiro, and received a one-year probation.
On top of all of that, he was suspended for 105 games in 2013 for testing positive for adderal, and in 2008, it was revealed that Tejada had been lying about his age his entire major league career and that he was actually two years older than he said he was.