“JUGAR A LA PELOTA!” LIGA OPENS 2021 SEASON

Monclova Acereros P Bartolo Colon

    The Mexican League played its first regular games since September 2019 over the weekend, starting last Thursday night when defending champion Monclova bopped visiting Monterrey, 9-3, behind the arm of Bartolo Colon and the bats of Erick Aybar and Chris Carter. Colon, the American League's 2005 Cy Young Award winner, tossed five innings for the Acereros, throwing 91 pitches (57 for strikes) while giving up one earned run on five hits before being replaced by Zach Phillips in the sixth frame.

    Despite allowing a solo homer by Sultanes centerfielder Jose Cardona to lead off the top of the third, Colon (who turns 48 on Monday) pitched well enough to earn the win in the first game of the 2021 LMB season. After the contest the 21-year MLB veteran said, “The hills are old but they still turn green.” Aybar aided the Monclova cause with three hits and an RBI while Carter (who led the Liga with 49 homers in 2019) socked a solo blast.

Tabasco OF Jovan Rosa

    The rest of the LMB swung into action Friday with a full slate of games. One of them, the Dos Laredos Tecolotes opening series against Tijuana had to be shifted from Nuevo Laredo's La Junta Park across the border to Texas' Laredo Ballpark after a rainstorm with winds topping 90 MPH swept through the Mexican border city last Monday, causing flooding and electrical problems. The Toros ended up winning Friday night's opener, 8-3, behind homers by Peter O'Brien and Leandro Castro while Balbino Fuenmayor launched a roundtripper for the Tecos.

    Among Friday's other LMB lid-lifters, Adrian Gonzalez drove in five runs as the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis topped the Durango Generales, 12-3; Roberto Osuna tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning to seal the Mexico City Diablos' 8-4 triumph over visiting Veracruz at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu; Henry Urrutia went 4-for-5, driving in two runs and scoring twice as Saltillo overwhelmed Aguascalientes, 10-2; Michael Choice collected four hits and two runs as every Laguna batsman had at least one hit in the Algodoneros' 15-7 triumph over Leon in Torreon; Puebla clobbered Oaxaca, 16-9, as David Olmedo-Barrera and Danny Ortiz combined for six RBIs as the Pericos posted 19 hits on the night; and Tabasco slipped past Quintana Roo, 2-1, in 12 innings at Villahermosa on Jovan Rosa's walkoff RBI single. The entire Campeche-Yucatan series in Campeche was rained out.

    Following Sunday's games, four LMB North teams ended the weekend without a loss. Monclova, Guadalajara and Laguna are all 3-0 as of Monday morning while Tijuana is 2-0. Conversely, Monterrey, Durango and Leon show 0-3 records and Dos Laredos is 0-2.

LMB LAUNCHES JONRON TV, EXPECTS UP TO 10K SUBSCRIBERS

    The Mexican League unveiled another facet of their expanded digital presence for the 2021 season last week when they unveiled their new Jonron TV, from which subscriptions to view LMB games this year are now available. Proceso's Beatriz Pereyra filed this translated report:

    The Mexican League announced the implementation of its channel for subscribers from the season which will allow it to generate revenues of between 50 million and 100 million pesos during the next three years.

    At a press conference, the president of the LMB, Horacio de la Vega, presented Jonrón TV, a platform to which fans will be able to subscribe for 449 pesos (with a discount) and a 549 pesos regular price per season.

    According to their estimates for the 2021 campaign, they expect between 5,000 and 10,000 people to subscribe, a figure that by 2024 should increase substantially.

    “Other platforms have between 50 thousand and 100 thousand subscribers. Our goal is that in three years we'll have between 50 and 100 million pesos of profits. There is a free pre-registration on Jonrón TV for people to experience,” de la Vega explained.

    Likewise, de la Vega said that the names of two other television channels where LMB games will be broadcast will be announced shortly, and that they will join ESPN, Channel 11, Multimedios and Azteca Digital: “On all these platforms we will reach more than 32 million homes on open television and another 20 million on pay television models where the 594 games of the regular season plus the playoffs can be seen.

   “We are going to have four or five times more income from the sale of television rights than in 2019 and since the agreements we signed are for more than three years for the most part, almost all of them have an increasing scale so that they are more productive until reaching 40% more than what we generate right now,” he explained.

    According to LMB figures, in 2019, five million people attended LMB games at a baseball stadium and the league has 4.9 million followers on social media.

    “We will reach more than 30 million people on the different platforms. If you don't see baseball, we are not going to grow in fans. We have to position our stars and carry out a very powerful marketing project,” emphasized de la Vega.

    For his part, the director of Marketing and Communications of the LMB, Alberto Guadarrama, asserted that the league's project is aimed at “offering baseball both to traditional audiences and to new generations who have different forms of consumption such as more short videos (highlights) and thus hook these new baseball fans.”

LIDDI DEALT TO MEXICALI IN SIX-PLAYER LMP SWAP

Former Mazatlan IF Alex Liddi

   Former MLB infielder Alex Liddi has been sent by the Mazatlan Venados to Mexicali as part of a six-player Mexican Pacific League trade last week. Relief pitcher Felipe Arredondo and first baseman Fernando Diaz were packaged with Liddi to the Aguilas while infielders Hector Hernandez and Alex Valdez went to Mazatlan along with pitcher Juan Pablo Tellez. The 6'4” Liddi (who turns 33 in August) played parts of three seasons for Seattle between 2011 and 2013, batting .208 with six homers and 16 RBIs over 61 MLB games after debuting in the Mariners organization as a 17-year-old in 2006.

    Liddi was traded to Baltimore during the 2013 season, starting an eight-year odyssey that saw the native of San Remo, Italy play in four big league minor league systems, Taiwan, Mexico and winterball stints in both the LMP and Puerto Rico. Liddi spent two seasons with Mazatlan, struggling to a .187 average over 39 games with the Venados in 2019-20 after batting .278 with four homers in 63 games the previous season. Last winter, he hit .242 with one homer over 17 games with Manati in Puerto Rico. The only native Italian to play in both MLB and the CPBL, Liddi will play this summer with the Mexican League's Yucatan Leones in Merida, where he now lives year-round.

    Arredondo, a 34-year-old righty, is a former Angels minor leaguer who has pitched in the Mexican League since 2011 (currently with Quintana Roo). He pitched briefly for his hometown Culiacan Tomateros in 2010-11 and has pitched for three LMP teams the past two winters. After going 2-0 with a 2.75 ERA for Jalisco last winter, he was traded to Mazatlan during the season and was 0-1 with a 13.50 ERA in two appearances. Diaz is a 19-year-old Ensenada product who hit .270 with six homers in 54 games for the Cardinals Dominican Summer League rookie team in 2019 before becoming one of the hundreds of victims of MLB's minor league purge last year.

Aguilas trade vet IF Hector Hernandez

     Hernandez is a longtime veteran infielder in both Mexican leagues. The 38-year-old Cosamaloapan product is capable of playing both left side positions as well as second base. He debuted in the LMB with Veracruz and played for Los Mochis that winter. He's gone on to play for nine LMB teams in 15 years, his last two for Yucatan in 2018 and 2019, and has a career .278 batting average over 1,234 games. In the Mex Pac, Hernandez appeared for three clubs in ten winters (the past five for Mexicali). As a utilityman for the Aguilas in 2020-21, he batted .268 in 83 plate appearances during 24 games.

    Valdez spent nine years in the Athletics organization and has also played with minor league teams in the Nationals and Red Sox systems. The Dominican corner infielder (who can also play second base) came to the Mexican League in 2011 and has hit .302 with 14 homers in eight seasons, splitting the 2019 campaign between Yucatan, Oaxaca and Mexico City. Valdez is a 13-year veteran of winterball, mostly in the Liga Dominicana. He hit .455 in seven games for the Aguilas 2019-20.

    Tellez is a 21-year-old right-hander who was a reliever in the 2019 Latin American Series for the old Xalapa Chileros and is now on the roster of the Mexican League's expansion Veracruz Aguilas.

LMB PRESEASON CAMPS, GAMES UNDERWAY

Bartolo Colon in San Antonio

    With the Mexican League's delayed season openers set for later this month, all 18 teams have opened their training camps in recent weeks and several preseason games have been played, including a pair of contests north of the border in San Antonio, Texas.

    The defending champion Monclova Acereros closed out a two-game series with a 10-0 shutout of the Dos Laredos Tecolotes at Nelson Wolff Stadium last Friday. Former Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon got the start for the Acereros, tossing four innings of one-hit ball with three strikeouts. A year after having to work his family's taco stand in California to make ends meet, Henry Omana was one of a number of relievers to come in from the Tecos' bullpen after starter Richelson Pena (a Rangers farmhand for nine summers) allowed three runs over two innings.

    Monclova won the first game in San Antonio last Thursday, 4-3, but had to work a lot harder to do it. Dos Laredos took a opening 2-0 lead in the top of the third on a two-run single by Balbino Fuenmayor, but the Steelers pulled to within a run in the bottom of the sixth via back-to-back doubles by Francisco Espinosa and Danny Espinosa. After the Tecos tacked on a run in the top of the seventh to take a 3-1 advantage, the champions knotted the score thanks to two-baggers from Nah Perio and Jacob Barfield. The final run of the night came in the bottom on the eighth when Monclova's Niko Pacheco scored from third on a Jorge Gonzalez wild pitch.

    In related news, a joint press conference between the Tecolotes and City of Laredo officials was held last month in which both parties expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming season with games being played at both Laredo Ballpark and Parque La Junta in neighboring Nuevo Laredo. There had been speculation that the Tecos would play some home games in other border cities after tense negotiations with the City of Laredo centered on control of concessions, which team owner Jose Antonio Mansur wanted year-round instead of only during baseball season, but an agreement has obviously been arrived upon.

    While Colon took the mound for Monclova last weekend, a number of other former big leaguers are rounding into shape for the 2021 schedule. In Guadalajara, Adrian Gonzalez has been working out with fellow members of the expansion Mariachis and belted a couple of homers during a batting practice session last week. Eyes are on Gonzalez' back, where pains greatly contributed to his exit from Major League Baseball after a stint with the Mets in 2018. El Titan appeared to be swinging pain-free during training camp and at this point, Mariachis manager Benji Gil still plans to alternate Gonzalez and Jesse Castillo between first base and designated hitter following the apparent retirement of a third veteran, Saul Soto.

Javier Robles is Tigres batting coach

    Meanwhile, to the east, ex-Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has been training with the LMB's other first-year club, the Veracruz Aguilas. According the the Septima Entrada website, Aguilas sports manager Jesus “Chino” Valdez says “the arrival of the Cuban outfielder has caused a positive impact within the Aguilas.” Writer Thomas Lopez says that during an interview on the Bateo Libre radio progam, Valdez said he held a meeting with Aguilas players before Puig's signing with Veracruz was announced and that the players “perfectly understood the level of character we were receiving. The harmony is very beautiful, a true 'teamwork' and we have not started to play yet.” Valdez rejected speculation that Puig was receiving perks like a personal chauffeur or security at his in-town residence.

    Finally, a longtime Tigres star is in camp with the Quintana Roo team in a new role with the Mexican League club. After briefly appearing in the Indians' system in 1991, Robles went on to spend 21 seasons as a power-hitting shortstop in the LMB (including a 14-year stint with the Tigres in Mexico City, Puebla and Cancun between 1994 and 2007) before retiring as a player in 2012. Now Robles is in his first season as the Tigres hitting coach under manager Adan Munoz, a teammate between 2004 and 2007. “What you learned during 20 seasons, you have to do it now with your players, with the boys,” Robles said. “Support them in whatever they can take care of and given them advice for game time.” The 50-year-old played on seven division champions and four pennant winners with the heritage franchise.

SARAPEROS SIGN 14-YEAR-OLD MERIDA INFIELDER

Jorge Cervantes in Saraperos camp

    Most professional teams in any sport will sign a young, unproven player with an eye to the future, but the Saltillo Saraperos may have outdone themselves with their latest contract. The Mexican League club recently announced an agreement with a 14-year-old native of Yucatan, middle infielder Jorge Cervantes.

    Saraperos sports director Roberto Magdaleno led a virtual press conference last week to announce the signing that was also attended by Cervantes, parents Jorge Cervantes Ramos and Fely Lara Garcia, sister Monserrat Cervantes and paternal grandfather Francisco Cervantes. “I want to thank Jorge's parents on behalf of the board of directors for the opportunity they give us to have their son with us, and even more to come from so far away.

    “We hope to God that with the passage of time, he can make a relevant career with us. A special thanks to Luis Borges for his support and follow-up. Luis is a person who spent a long time in Saltillo keeping a very special affection for the team and the city, a professional as an athlete and a great person who was able to coordinate with (scouting director) Leo Figueroa to complete this important signing.”

    A native of Merida like the young signee, Borges spent the final four seasons of his 17-year LMB career as an infielder in Saltilo after 11 summers with the Yucatan Leones. He's worked as a baseball instructor in recent years for Pittsburgh and in Merida, he had the opportunity to train and observe players and has known the Cervantes family for a long time. “I've known Luis from a very young age,” Borges said. “He's always had skill but above all, the attitude to play baseball. It was a process to know at which point could he get to do it professionally.”

    “Luis has excellent hitting to develop and great projections to be a good player, even for the United States. He is very young, having just turned 14 years old, and we must continue working with him, but he'll go as far as he wants.”

Jorge Cervantes

    The 14-year-old shortstop and second baseman, who's studied the past year at Blas Pascal High School (where his favorite subject is science), said at the press conference, “I'm very excited to be able to belong to this great organization. I was training with Luis Borges in Yucatan for about eight months and was confident that I could be signed. We trained very hard several days a week to achieve this dream.”

    Cervantes had a chance to work out with the Saraperos for three days in training camp and said he settled down in short time. “At first I didn't think about it much,” the teen remarked. “I was nervous batting. I felt a little tense when I saw great players like Kennys Vargas and Manny Rodríguez himself but on the second day, I was letting go and I was calmer.”

    His favorite Major League player at the moment is Fernando Tatis Jr., but also appreciates Randy Arozarena “a lot for his hitting. In my country I have had the opportunity to train with him (Arozarena is a Merida resident during the offseason). He's an icon for everything he achieved in the World Series.”

    Cervantes concluded by saying, “I want to raise the surname Cervantes high. I have to take advantage the confidence that the entire Saraperos board of directors have given me and the support I received from Luis Borges so that they would notice me. This is the beginning of a career and I want it to be worth it.”

BRAVERMAN: MEXICAN PLAYERS GET “INEQUALITY” IN LMB

Out 27 columnist David Braverman

   One of Mexico's most prominent baseball columnists is David Braverman. His “Out 27” column is one of the most widely-read across the country and his name was floated as a potential replacement for Javier Salinas as president of the Mexican League before the Assembly of Presidents selected Horacio de la Vega as the 26^th man to hold that title in November 2019.

    Braverman recently wrote a column decrying what he considers poor treatment of Mexican-born ballplayers within the Mexican League, particularly in roster spots a salaries. The following is an edited Google translation of that column:

    With the LMB mini-season just around the corner and the 18 teams preparing for it, a theme is once again becoming more acute that should not be put aside because it is a recurring one. I am referring to the growing inequality that appears on the rosters of some organizations around the hiring of Mexican players born in Mexico, Mexicans born in the United States and foreigners.

    Taking the preseason roster presented by the Acereros de Monclova as an example, we can see that of 44 players, only 8 of them are born in Mexico; that is, only 18% of the total of their squad. The remaining 82% is made up of Mexican baseball players born across the border (dual nationality) along with Dominican, Venezuelan and American foreigners.

    The issue is not only on the list of players and goes further. This team will be managed by foreigner Pat Listach and among 10 members of its coaching staff, only three were born in Mexico: Martín Arzate, Matías Carrillo and Francisco Villegas. Needless to say, Spanish is practically unspoken in their dugout, something very similar to what has happened in other dressing rooms such as Tijuana or Dos Laredos.

    You may be wondering how all of this affects the Mexican-born player. I tell you, the country's baseball player collects his salary in pesos as a native person with a business activity, is issued a receipt for salary and therefore pays taxes. In the case of foreigners, every player receives their salary in dollars, as agreed from the beginning of the season. The Mexican-American plays as a “Mexican,” bienvenidos, but is paid like an American (in dollars) and I leave there the doubt of how they work in terms of taxes. They are Mexicans like you and me, that is how the Constitution establishes it, but just as they have rights, they must comply with obligations and there is the doubt. Now that if it is about making a player “Mexican,” they tell me that in Castaños, Coahuila, there is the solution.

LMB prospects in Liga Academia game

    Given all this, it is clear that a good number of players born in Mexico are being displaced. Many of them have not played since August 2019 and have had to dedicate themselves to other trades for more than a year. Let's not forget that the LMB teams, in addition to their seasonal rosters, have reserve lists in which many players are simply "stand by" without receiving a salary.

    The Mexican baseball player born in Mexico has to get on his feet and once and for all react and pull in the same direction: stars and rookies, with high or low salaries. They should have formed a union a long time ago, an association that looks out for their interests not by fighting with owners but to give themselves their place both in contractual and salary issues, insisting not to create conflicts but to build profits. Today the players, in addition to salary issues, have no one to defend them or in matters such as fights with umpires, expulsions, fines, etc.

    Gentlemen, you are the raw material of baseball, no one else. Take action.

MARIACHIS ADD 2-TIME MVP CASTILLO TO ROSTER

Jesse Castillo batting for Guasave

    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 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

Danny Espinosa at Acereros camp

    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.

Dos Laredos 1B Balbino Fuenmayor

    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

Oliver Perez in 19th MLB season

    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:

Baltimore infielder Ramon Urias

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)