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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
April 12, 2021
MARIACHIS
ADD 2-TIME MVP CASTILLO TO ROSTER
The brand-new Guadalajara Mariachis
are looking to make a splash in their inaugural Mexican League season.
However,
while adding prominent players to their roster, they've created a
logjam for
themselves at one position. According to Roberto Espinosa of Beisbol
Puro,
the Mariachis have picked up veteran first baseman Jesse Castillo after
already
signing longtime LMBer Saul Soto and former major league All-Star
Adrian Gonzalez,
who also play the initial hassock.
While the threesome would have the
potential to belt a combined 75+ homers in a full season for the
Jalisco squad
(if each was healthy and played every day), even if they split time
between
first base and designated hitter, someone would be sitting because the
42-year-old Soto hasn't caught a game since 2016, the 38-year-old
Castillo has
played three games at third base since 2015 and Gonzalez (who turns 39
next
month) last played the outfield in 2012. It might make the most sense
to rotate
the three between first and DH over the upcoming 66-game season,
meaning each
would play 44 times, but it remains to be seen whether any would be
willing to
sit every third day.
Castillo comes with some risk after
missing all of the 2019 LMB season due to a blown knee suffered when he
was
rounding first base while batting for Monclova during the Fall 2018
North
Division championship series. The Mexicali-born slugger did play
winterball in
Venezuela during the 2019-20 campaign and with Guasave last season in
the
Mexican Pacific League season before being named the LMP Finals MVP and
belting
a homer and driving in five runs for Culiacan as a reinforcement in the
Caribbean Series, so it does appear that his bat is back in shape.
Castillo was
training to play for Leon last spring before the Wuhan virus-caused
pandemic
led to the Liga's 2020 season being canceled.
Prior to his injury, Castillo may
have been the most feared hitter in the Mexican League between 2015 and
2018.
Over that timespan, the 6'1” lefty swinger never batted below .324
while
leading the LMB with an aggregate 557 hits, 315 RBIs and 322 runs
scored. He
was second with 108 doubles and 293 walks while belting 66 homers to
rank sixth
in the loop en route to winning consecutive MVP trophies in 2017 and
Spring
2018. In other words, he has legitimate bonafides. But so do El Jefe
(Soto) and El Titan (Gonzalez).
With the start of the Mexican
League's shortened schedule less than six weeks away, Guadalajara
manager Benji
Gil will have to determine what kind of balancing act he'll have to use
in the
regular season over the next two months. If he goes with the three-man,
two-position rotation mentioned above, the trio would at worst be
fairly
well-rested heading into the playoffs in early August.
ACEREROS,
TECOS TO PLAY TWO EXHIBITIONS IN SAN ANTONIO
Two Mexican League teams will be
playing a pair of exhibition games in San Antonio later this month when
the
defending LMB champion Monclova Acereros take on the Dos Laredos
Tecolotes. The games will take place
Thursday, April 29
and Friday, April 30 at Nelson Wolff Stadium, home of the Class AA San
Antonio
Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate.
The Acereros will have a major
league look on their roster, starting with their manager.
The American League's 1992 Rookie of the
Year, Pat Listach, took the reins of the team during the 2019 season
and led
them to the city's first Mexican League pennant 45 years after
Monclova's debut
season. One of Listach's coaches is former Phillies second baseman Juan
Samuel,
a three-time National League All-Star. Then there's the Monclova
playing
roster.
Former Cubs World Series shortstop
Addison Russell signed with the Steelers last month and another big
name is
reportedly on the way for 2021. Russell will be joined by outfielder
Rajai
Davis (who played for Cleveland against Russell's Cubs in the 2006 Fall
Classic), first baseman Chris Carter (2016 National League home run
champion),
Erick Aybar (former American League All-Star) and Bartolo Colon, the
AL's 2005
Cy Young Award winner. The Acereros have also picked up former
Nationals
infielder Danny Espinosa, who is slated to play at shortstop while
Russell
moves over to third base in initials plans for the upcoming season.
The Tecolotes will not have nearly
the same star power as Monclova brings over the Texas border. The
biggest name
on the Dos Laredos roster may well be their manager, former pitching
star Pablo
Ortega. A 44-year-old Nuevo Laredo native, Ortega retired in 2019 after
19 seasons
in the Liga, finishing with a 156-101 career record and a 4.41 ERA
along with
1,119 strikeouts over 2,072 innings pitched. He reached double figures
in wins
seven times (five times between 2008 and 2012), pitched in six All-Star
Games
and was the LMB Comeback Player of the Year in 2011. Ortega served as
interim
manager last winter in Mazatlan, where he led the Venados to a winning
record
and a Mexican Pacific League playoff berth after replacing Juan Jose
Pacho, but
will not be back for the 2021-22 season.
Ortega's charges will include a pair
of former MLBers from Brazil. Outfielder Paulo Orlando was a member of
Kansas
City's 2015 American League pennant-winning team as a rookie while
fellow Andre
Rienzo pitched for the White Sox and Marlins between 2013 and 2015.
Both spent
time in the Mex Pac with the Obregon Yaquis last winter.
Some familiar names in Mexican
baseball dot the Tecos roster. The border team recently dealt for
veteran
Oaxaca centerfielder Alan Sanchez, a 2017 All-Star and .305 batter
since his
2010 Liga debut. Orlando and Sanchez will be joined in the outfield by
Roberto
Lopez, who was the 2017 Serie del Rey MVP after leading Tijuana to the
pennant
that year. First baseman Balbino Fuenmayor, who hit .334 with 31 homers
for Dos
Laredos in 2019, is back in Mexico after finishing the winterball
season in his
native Venezuela. One notable member of the Owls' roster is pitcher
Luke
Heimlich, the Pitcher of the Year in 2018 at Oregon State, who went 8-7
with a
4.58 ERA over 21 starts with the team in his 2019 pro debut.
Game times in San Antonio for the
series will be 7:05PM both night. Ticket prices for the exhibition
games will
range from $10 to $30 each.
SIXTEEN
MEXICANS ON MLB OPENING DAY ROSTERS
The Mexican contingent that opened
the 2021 Major League Baseball season this month consisted of 16
players. While
Oliver Pérez is adding a 19th MLB season to his resume, eight other
players of
Mexican descent had their first experience on a big league Opening Day
roster,
including brothers Luis and Ramón Urías.
The Urías brothers are not the first
Mexican-born pair of siblings to open the season on a Major League
Baseball
roster. Adrián and Édgar González, Mexicans born in California, did it
playing
for the San Diego Padres in 2009. In the case of Oliver Pérez, he will
continue
to set the record for most seasons by a Mexican in MLB, In 2020, he
passed
Fernando Valenzuela, Aurelio Rodríguez and Juan Gabriel Castro, who
participated in 17 calendars in The Show.
Eight of the 16 players who opened
the season in the Major Leagues experienced an Opening Day at that
level for
the first time: José Urquidy (Houston), Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis),
Alejandro Kirk (Toronto), Luis Urías (Milwaukee), Ramón Urías
(Baltimore),
Víctor González (Dodgers), Río Ruiz (Baltimore) and Felipe “Tres”
Barrera
(Washington). Last year, Urquidy and Gallegos were scheduled to start
the
campaign with their teams but the pandemic prevented that from
happening.
The number of 16 Mexicans opening
the 2021 MLB season is the most since the same number was recorded in
2017, but
still far behind the record of 24 Mexican nationals on Opening Day
rosters in
the 2003 campaign.
MEXICAN
NATIONALS ON 2021 OPENING DAY ROSTERS:
Felipe
“Tres”
Barrera (Washington Nationals)
Luis
Cessa
(New York Yankees)
Phillip
Evans
(Pittsburgh Pirates)
Giovanny
Gallegos (St. Louis Cardinals)
Victor
Gonzalez (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Alejandro
Kirk (Toronto Blue Jays)
Oliver
Pérez
(Cleveland Indians)
Daniel
Ponce
de León (San Luis Cardinals)
Sergio
Romo (Oakland
Athletics)
Rio
Ruiz
(Baltimore Orioles)
Joakim
Soria
(Arizona Diamondbacks)
Julio
Urías
(Los Angeles Dodgers)
Luis
Urías
(Milwaukee Brewers)
Ramón
Urías
(Baltimore Orioles)
José
Urquidy
(Houston Astros)
Alex Verdugo (Boston Red Sox)
