THIS DAY IN BÉISBOL December 9: Slugger Carlos Peña signs $10M deal with Cubs

Carlos Peña has been a familiar face to MLB Network viewers as a vivacious in-studio analyst for more than a decade. But the slugging first baseman was also well known to an inordinate number of fan bases, having played on eight different teams over a 14-year career.

On this day in béisbol, December 9, 2010 the Dominican Republic-born, Massachusetts-bred Peña signed a one-year, $10 million deal with the Cubs, hoping a monster season in Wrigley Field would lead to a long-term contract and some career stability.

The lefty was coming off a four-season stint with the Tampa Bay Rays, where he enjoyed his best years. His peak was in 2007, when he swatted 46 homers — second only to Alex Rodriguez’s 54 — and led the AL in round-trippers in 2009 with 39 despite missing nearly all of September.

The big contract in Chicago never panned out, and Peña found himself bouncing around the AL as a bat for hire before retiring in 2014 with 286 career homers.

Also on this day: In 1994, the Rangers traded DH Jose Canseco to the Red Sox after a 31-homer, 90-RBI season in Texas. The hulking hitter spent two years at Fenway, where he averaged 26 homers and 82 RBI.

Keith Allison, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; LatinoBaseball.com illustration