Puerto Rico Winter Baseball League gets delayed season underway
After the devastation of Hurricane Maria, the Puerto Rico Winter League had its opening day delayed from late October/early November to Friday night.
Major League Baseball has had an impressive presence in Puerto Rico for many years. One of those major pieces of influence has been the participation of major and minor league players in Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, the official name of the Puerto Rico Winter League.
However, after the destruction of Hurricane Maria, the league delayed its start date until after the first of the year. There have also been some changes to the league for the 2018 season due to the length of the league and other restrictions. We’ll take a look at those here.
2018 Puerto Rico Winter League changes
Like much of the island, the league was in tough financial shape before the hurricane made landfall, let alone afterward. Poor attendance along with drastic spikes in costs to operate the basic functions of a team have sent the league into a financial tailspin, which had already changed the league from 5 teams to 4 teams before Maria hit.
After the destruction of the hurricane, the league will play all of its games in two stadiums, focusing all games on the weekend due to having all teams share the two stadiums. Due to the time constraints, the teams will play a 21-game season all during the day.
The league wants to have its season complete by the end of January in order to be ready for the Caribbean Series which starts February 1st, with Puerto Rico as defending champion of the Caribbean Series from 2017.
All games will occur during the day due to power issues and curfews in some parts of the island. The league will play games at 1:30 on Thursdays and Fridays, then play double-headers on both Saturday and Sunday.
The other big thing for this season is that only players who are from Puerto Rico will be allowed, no imported players, which will be the first time in the league history that will be the case. The team budgets have been limited extremely as well. This has led to a number of Puerto Rico’s native players playing in the Dominican, Mexican, or Venezuelan winter leagues in order to make more money.
Players participating in the 2018 league
With rosters announced, let’s take a look at some of the more notable players who are on the rosters this season in the league.
Criollos de Caguas has a handful of players with major league experience, including Paco Rodriguez, still working to rehab from multiple elbow procedures to his left arm, infielders Christian Colon and Ruben Gotay, and outfielder Rusney Castillo. They are managed by Luis Matos.
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Carmelo Martinez manages the Gigantes de Carolina squad. Their team has a collection of minor league players, with outfielder Ryan Kalish being the most well-known former big leaguer. The team does have 9 active minor league players on their roster, though.
The Cangrejeros de Santurce team is managed by Max Oliveras, and he has a dozen active pro players in the minor and major leagues. Rey Fuentes is probably the most well-known active players as a former top prospect, with infielders Robert Andino and Ivan De Jesus, Jr. working up the middle for Oliveras’ squad.
Finally, the Indios de Mayaguez team has the biggest name players on it with former All-Star Jose Valverde in the bullpen alongside current Rangers closer Alex Claudio. Former MLB starter Jonathan Sanchez anchors the starting staff on the oldest team in the league by a significant margin.
The Indios team has a lineup that features former big league catcher Carlos Corporan and current Twins 1B/DH Kennys Vargas as well as quite a few minor league talents. They are managed by Jose Valentin
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It will be fun to cheer for the players from Puerto Rico as the Caribbean Series gets underway in February, but hopefully the island can see some level of recovery from the games of this year’s winter league as Puerto Rico has enjoyed promoting the strength of baseball in their country recently, winning the Caribbean Series and coming in runner-up in the WBC in 2017.