Juan Manuel Rincón is a professional baseball coach and retired relief pitcher. Rincón bats and throws right-handed. He throws a low 90s fastball and a mid to low 80s slider. In his career, Rincón posted a.208 BAA against left-handed hitters and a.248 BAA against right-handed hitters.
Rincón was originally signed by the Minnesota Twins as an amateur free agent in 1996. He worked his way up through the Twins farm system and was selected as a Midwest League All-Star in 1999 when he went 14–8 with a 2.92 ERA in 28 starts with the Quad Cities River Bandits. Rincón made his major league debut on June 7, 2001, for the Twins against the Cleveland Indians when he worked one scoreless inning in relief. He spent eight seasons with the Twins, appearing in 386 games, ending with a 30–26 record and 3.69 ERA, mostly working in relief. On May 2, 2005, Rincón became the fifth baseball player to be suspended for testing positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs under Major League Baseball's drug policy. He was suspended for ten days without pay as the policy dictates for a first offense. On June 12, 2008 the Twins cut ties with him and after rejecting a minor league assignment, he became a free agent.
Cleveland Indians
He signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Indians on June 24, 2008, and was 1–1 with a 5.60 ERA in 23 appearances for the Indians in 2008.
On January 20, 2009, Rincón was signed by the Detroit Tigers to a minor league contract. He made the major league roster after spring training, but was designated for assignment on May 13, 2009, to make room on the 25 man active roster for Dontrelle Willis. Rincón had three days to accept an outright assignment to the AAAToledo Mud Hens or become a free agent. On May 17, 2009, Rincon rejected an assignment to AAA Toledo, thus hitting the free agent market. Rincon posted a 5.23 ERA and was 1–0 in 10 appearances with the Tigers.
On May 25, 2009, Rincón signed a Minor League deal with the Colorado Rockies. On May 1, 2010, he was designated for assignment to make room for spot starter Esmil Rogers. On May 3, he was assigned to Triple-A affiliate Colorado Springs. He became a free agent on October 15 after he refused an assignment to the minor leagues.
Juan Rincón signed a split contract with the Los Angeles Angels on February 24, 2012, which did not include an invitation to spring training. Rincón hired Burton Rocks as his agent in 2013 to seek a job as player/coach with a big league organization.
Coaching
On February 23, 2016, the Toronto Blue Jays hired Rincón to be their new pitching coach for the Gulf Coast Blue Jays, their rookie team, for the 2016 season.
