Major League Baseball has had a heavy influx of Latin American taken over the past quarter century, which has translated into competitive winter league teams during baseball’s offseason. The Indians have players in nearly all of these leagues, including the Venezuelan, Dominican, and Puerto Rican leagues. This season, unlike some past years, however, they do not feature many of the Indians top players or prospects.
Liga Venezuela Beisbol
The Indians have a number of players currently playing in the Venezuelan winter league, though the majority of them are lower-teir prospects and not on most fan’s RADAR just yet. Jesus Aguilar has played in this league for a number of years and returned this season. He played in 21 games for Leones del Caracas, posting a triple slash line of .253/.344/.519, with 5 home runs. Despite only playing in one-third of the club’s games, he’s still near the top of the league in home runs. This next season is probably Aguilar’s final season to prove his worth, though it seems highly unlikely he’ll receive much of an opportunity given the Mike Napoli signing. Yhoxian Medina has also seen 9 games of action with Caracas, though his results aren’t much to write home about. In those 9 games he’s posted a .278 batting average, as well as an identical on-base and slugging percentage. Anthony Santander, the former Lake County Captain, has seen 9 games of action as well with Navegantes del Magallanes. Santander however did not have much success in his limited time, slashing a paltry .100/.182/.100.
No major pitching prospects or players from the major league team are playing in the Venezuelan league. The most notable arm is the recently signed Felipe Paulino. Paulino has appeared in 4 games for Bravos de Margarita, including 2 starts and 12.1 innings, with a 5.11 ERA.
Liga de Beisbol Dominicano
The Dominican league features the most MLB talent, 9 of which are in the Indians’ organization. Major leaguers, Abraham Almonte, Jose Ramirez, and Michael Martinez have spent time with Dominican teams. Almonte has appeared in 20 games for Toros del Este and has posted a .247/.313/.315 triple slash in those games. Jose Ramirez was having the most success of any Indians player in the Caribbean leagues before he sustained a leg after appearing in 13 games (it ended up being a minor injury and he will be fine by Spring Training). His .300/.364/.400 slash line, with 5 steals made him one of the top performers in the league. Michael Martinez spent the majority of 2015 in Columbus, with brief stints in Cleveland. He’s appeared in 21 games in the Dominican league, but his .172/.206/.203 slash doesn’t evidence much success.
Minor leaguers, Erik Gonzalez, Luigi Rodriguez, and Ronny Rodriguez have also seen time with Dominican league teams. Gonzalez has had moderate success at the plate with a .262/.308/.361 slash line in 19 games. Luigi has appeared in 11 games, though his .130 average with 1 home run doesn’t leave him with much to show. The other Rodriguez has built upon his strong 2015 performance with 8 solid games of action and a .286 batting average.
Former Clipper Jarrett Grube is the only Indians arm in the Dominican league, he’s appeared in 4 games, pitching 14 innings, striking out 13, and posting a 3.86 ERA.
Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente
The Puerto Rican winter league features a wealth of major league talent and a number of Indians players. Roberto Perez has seen 16 games of action with Indios de Mayaguez, posting a .314/.386/.392 slash with 1 home run. Recently signed Robbie Grossman saw 9 games of action, but did not have much success, hitting just .182.
Joseph Colon has appeared in 12 games with Cangrejeros de Santruce, including 7 starts. In his 38.2 innings, he posted a minuscule 1.12 ERA. Giovanni Sotto has seen 8 games of action for Mayaguez with 17.2 innings, posting a 2.55 ERA.
Winter league results are not an accurate indicator of a player’s performance in the upcoming season. Usually this is just an opportunity for the player to get a few more at bats or work on something particular, like Carlos Santana did before the 2014 season when he tried his hand at third base. Obviously you’d like to see some players perform better than they did, but this shouldn’t be read into too deeply. So fret not Tribe fans, and remember pitchers and catchers report in 46 days!
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