Leonardo Lazaro Cárdenas Alfonso (born December 17, 1938) is a Cuban former professional baseball player.

While playing for the Havana Sugar Kings in the International League in 1959, Cárdenas was inadvertently shot by raucous Fidel Castro supporters firing off rifles in the grandstand in celebration of the 26th of July Movement.

Cárdenas made his Major League debut on July 25, 1960,[1] starting and batting eighth and playing shortstop in a 6–5 Reds win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

After grounding into a double play and later lining out, he notched his first career hit with a seventh-inning run-scoring single off Cubs pitcher Bob Anderson.

Cárdenas was awarded the full-time starting shortstop job in 1962, and responded with a .294 average, 10 home runs and 60 RBI.

[11] The Twins had something of a revolving door at short in 1968 with Jackie Hernández, Rick Renick, Ron Clark and César Tovar all manning the position at one point or another.

Bringing in Cárdenas for 1969 solidified the Twins at their weakest position, and helped turn around the team's fortune.

At the 1971 Winter meetings, the California Angels acquired Cárdenas for relief pitcher Dave LaRoche.

The acquisition marked former All-Star shortstop Jim Fregosi as trade bait;[13] he would go to the New York Mets for Nolan Ryan a week later.

During Spring training 1973, Cárdenas was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Tommy McCraw and minor leaguer Bob Marcano to make room for Bobby Valentine at short, whom they had recently acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

[15] Following Cárdenas‘ only season in Cleveland, he was dealt to the Texas Rangers in a controversial deal for catcher Ken Suarez, who had just filed for arbitration a week before the February 12, 1974 trade.