VAZQUEZ HOPEFUL ON SPENDING 2011 WITH YANKEES

Mexico-born slugger Jorge “Chato” Vazquez is playing this winter for Culiacan in the Mexican Pacific League with an eye on earning a spot with the New York Yankees next spring. After several productive seasons in the Mexican League, Vazquez was signed as a free agent by the Yankees prior to the 2009 campaign. He was an Eastern League All-Star that season while hitting .329 with 13 homers and 56 RBIs for the Yanks’ AA affiliate in Trenton. Vazquez spent the 2010 season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the AAA International League and batted .270 with 18 homers and 62 ribbies.

It hasn’t been an easy two years in North America for the 28-year-old Sinaloa native, however. He suffered a broken right wrist at the end of his season in Trenton. “It was a test,” Vazquez told LMB.com’s Gabriel Medina, “but I kept going.” Vazquez also came down with acute appendicitis early in the 2010 season. “There have been little things in my career,” he says, “but I remembered to toe the line and I’m following my goals.”

Vazquez adds that he’s motivated by the presence of fellow Mexicanos Alfredo Aceves and Ramiro Pena in New York: “It feels good to have two countrymen there. It shows that we can be there.”