TOMATEROS’ CANTU SHELVED WITH ABDOMINAL TEAR

      

Hopes were high in Culiacan for former major league infielder Jorge Cantu, who joined the Tomateros this winter after a solid summer with the Mexican League champion Quintana Roo Tigres.  

In 106 regular season contests for the Cancun squad, Cantu battered Liga pitchers for a .351 average with 25 homers and 100 RBIs.  He cooled off in the postseason, hitting .275 with 3 homers in 10 games as the Tigres knocked off Yucatan and Monclova for the pennant, but the Texas native (by way of Reynosa) who hit .271 with 108 homers over 847 MLB contests between 2004 and 2011 was expected to provide Culiacan a strong middle-of-order bat this season.

It hasn’t worked out that way for Cantu or the Tomateros, who placed the 33-year-old first baseman on the disabled list with an abdominal tear after he hit just .232 with 1 homer and 12 RBIs in 27 games.  Cantu tells Puro Beisbol’s Fernando Ballasteros he suffered the tear near his groin area during the Tigres’ playoff run and that it flared up two weeks after reporting to Culiacan.  He tried playing through it but after a series in Los Mochis, it was decided that his year was over. Cantu will undergo testing and therapy in hope of returning to Cancun for the 2016 season.