Minor League Names To Know: Cuban Signees
Names to Know – Cuban Minor League Players
This will be the first of a new series I’ll be doing each week exploring players who may be less publicized or lesser known that could be of importance.
Now, not all these guys will be completely under the radar as each one of these posts will have a theme to them. But even then, if I’m mentioning them in one of these pieces, it’s because even though the player is known, the publicity around them isn’t quite what I feel it should be for their talent level.
Today’s focus is on the minor leagues. In 1961, Fidel Castro halted travel Cuban visas to the United States and forced any player that wanted to play major league baseball to have to defect from the country and disown his home land in order to pursue his dream. Recently, we’ve seen an influx of very good players from the small island, including Juan Abreu, Yoenis Cespedes, and Yasiel Puig.
Currently, there are a number of players in the minor leagues who are former Cubans and working their way to the major leagues. We’re going to highlight a few of them over the next few slides.
Next: A Superstar in the Making
Yoan Moncada, IF, Boston Red Sox
Who Is He?
When Moncada came up as a possible signee in the 2014-2015 offseason, he was widely considered the top talent to have left Cuba, which is saying quite a bit based on the success of many of the Cuban players that have played in the majors, especially recently.
The Red Sox were willing to blow their bank on the young infielder, and they’ve not been disappointed at all. Moncada hit .278/.380/.438 in his first year in low-A ball, hitting 8 home runs and stealing an incredible 49 bases while only getting caught 3 times!
This season, Moncada has picked up right where he left off, and then some. After an offseason where he worked on more completely building his frame, he showed up a chiseled 6’2, 210 pounds, yet he’s still already stolen 25 bases in his first 35 games. His current slash line for high-A Salem is .328/.463/.508.
Currently, Moncada is playing second base, and he has the foot speed to play up the middle, but he also has the arm to move to third base if that turns out to be his better position long term.
Coming into the season, he was ranked among the top 15-20 prospects in the entire game, and when MLB.com recently updated their prospect lists to reflect graduations to the major leagues, Moncada was ranked #5 overall in all of baseball!
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Eddy Martinez, OF, Chicago Cubs
Who Is He?
Martinez was signed last year by the Cubs, and he’s just made his debut for their minor league club this season, playing for South Bend in the class-A Midwest League. He’s currently putting up a line of .237/.305/.381 with 4 home runs and 3 stolen bases through 32 games.
It’s that combination of power and speed that got the Cubs (and many other teams) interested in the first place, leading to a big bonus for Martinez as part of the Cubs international free agent signing group. Martinez has struggled some right away, but that’s not surprising as he hadn’t played organized baseball in almost two full years before starting in South Bend this season.
Martinez profiles as a right fielder with a very good arm and solid defensive instincts in the outfield.
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Yoan Lopez, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Who Is He?
Lopez was signed the same offseason as Yasmany Tomas by the Diamondbacks as they invested heavily in the island in one offseason. He made his debut for AA Mobile and had some injury issues that cut into his season and his effectiveness as he made a total of 11 appearances, 10 of them starts, throwing 54 innings with a 4.17 ERA and 1.35 WHIP between Mobile and one rehab start for the rookie-league team as he returned from his injury.
Lopez is not a strikeout artist, and he’s most likely going to be a guy who induces a lot of ground ball outs through a heavy fastball and a slider. He returned to Mobile this year, and thus far, the results have been somewhat better through 7 starts. He’s thrown 33 innings with a 3.82 ERA and 1.52 WHIP.
While Lopez may not profile to be the ace that some were attempting to sell him as when he was a free agent, he does have a very good ability to get ground outs, and that can be very useful in the back of the rotation or in the bullpen down the line.
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Next: Rangers Double Machine
Yusniel Diaz, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers
Who Is He?
If any team in baseball has gone big into the Cuban market, it’s the Dodgers. Their current 40-man major league roster has four guys from Cuba, and each team in the minor leagues has multiple players from Cuba on the team. This offseason, the Dodgers signed two young Cuban players, right-handed pitcher Yaisel Sierra and Diaz.
Diaz is still just 19 years old and won’t even turn 20 until October, yet the Dodgers were confident enough in his ability to start him at their high-A affiliate in the California League. He’s hit fairly well with a .286/.350/.473 line with 4 triples and 3 home runs in 24 games. He has struck out quite a bit, but after not playing organized ball for almost two years, some of that was to be expected.
Diaz has the best chance of being a guy who gets rated like Moncada going into next season. He has the kind of power the way Moncada has speed. Evaluators expected Diaz to be a guy with a good balance of speed and power, but he’s shown incredible power at times already this season, and he could explode in that area, possibly warranting a promotion to AA before the end of the season as a teenager.