Henry Cotto

Henry Cotto (born January 5, 1961) is an American former professional baseball outfielder and coach. He played in all or parts of ten seasons in Major League Baseball, from 1984 until 1993. He played one season in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants, winning the 1994 Japan Series. After a brief return to the minor leagues in 1995, he retired. He then coached in the minor leagues for two decades.

Playing career Cotto grew up in Puerto Rico, moving to the island three months after being born in New York. He attended high school at Colegio Bautista de Caguas. He signed with the Chicago Cubs as an international free agent on June 7, 1980.

Cotto played in the Puerto Rican winter baseball league for the Criollos de Caguas during the 1980s.

In December 1987, the Yankees traded Cotto and Steve Trout to the Seattle Mariners for pitchers Lee Guetterman, Clay Parker, and Wade Taylor. In 1988, Cotto reached career highs with 27 stolen bases and 133 games played.

On June 27, 1993, Cotto and pitcher Jeff Darwin were traded to the Florida Marlins for Dave Magadan. After the season, the two teams swapped Magadan and Darwin.

Cotto signed with the Baltimore Orioles before the 1994 season but had his contract canceled so that he could sign with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball. He hit .251 with 18 home runs in Japan in 1994, second most on the team behind Hideki Matsui. Due to the MLB strike that year, the postseason Japan Series received additional attention in the United States. Cotto hit home runs in games 5 and 6 of the series, which the Giants won 4 games to 2.

Cotto returned to the United States in 1995, signing a contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 21. Upon signing, Cotto said he would consider being a replacement player amid the ongoing strike. He later agreed to be a replacement player but was assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds after the strike ended and union players returned to major league teams. He played in 17 games for Nashville before retiring due to a shoulder injury.

Beginning in 2009, he worked as a roving outfield/baserunning instructor for the San Francisco Giants and was the manager of the Arizona League Giants from 2015 to 2017. Cotto and his wife Laurie live in Phoenix and have a second child, Claudia.

Before playing professional baseball, Cotto signed a contract to play professional basketball in Puerto Rico.