Francisco Cervelli (born March 6, 1986) is an Italo-Venezuelan former professional baseball catcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, and Miami Marlins from 2008 through 2020. Initially a switch hitter, the Yankees had him focus on right-handed hitting.

The Yankees signed Francisco as an international free agent in 2003. He made his MLB debut with the Yankees in 2008, and played on the 2009 World Series championship team that beat the Philadelphia Phillies.

He also played in the 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classics for the Italian national team. He was acquired by the Pirates in November 2014. The Pirates traded Fran to Atlanta in 2019, and he played for Miami in 2020 before announcing his retirement.

During the crisis in Venezuela, Francisco's parents moved to Colombia, and his grandparents returned to Italy. Cervelli took to social media in 2017 to voice his opposition to Nicolás Maduro. He teamed with Hernán Pérez in an ongoing effort to call American attention to the issue, using techniques such as writing "SOS Venezuela" on his eye black. He led teammates in wearing "Freedom for Venezuela" t-shirts in 2019.

Fran was a good hitting catcher (.269 BA over his career), who was also a reliable backstop. His hard-nosed, all-in style, and some poor luck led to him receiving seven (7) concussions while playing and may have led to the decision to end his career in 2020.

He is active on twitter at https://twitter.com/fran_cervelli (@fran_cervelli).

(excerpted from Wikipedia, BR Bullpen, and Baseball Almanac)