The year’s final week is in the Caribbean Winter Leagues in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Mexico. This past week saw new leaders in the standings, former champions cementing their leads, and the Puerto Rico Baseball Hall of Fame inducted six new members into the Puerto Rico Baseball Hall of Fame.
After this week, there should be no doubt about manager Yadier Molina’s capabilities as a manager, as Águilas Cibaeñas has claimed the lead in the standings mainly due to Molina’s tutelage. The former MLB All-Star was hired as manager for Aguilas after a 2 – 7 start. Águilas have played for a record of 26-13 under Molina, to bring their record to a league-leading 28-20, one-half game above runners-up Estrellas Orientales, and way on their way to the league playoffs beginning in a couple of weeks. One example of how Molina’s leadership has been influential was shared by Aguila’s pitcher Enny Romero, who shared with Rafael Padilla of ElPadi TV how Molina encouraged him to finish a tough 5th inning in a game this week. «He came out to the mound to make me laugh and reassure me that I was the man who was going to finish that inning.» In an interview in the same medium, Ezequiel Duran credited the Aguilas hitters for working hard on offense and credited that and Molina’s management for the season’s turnaround.
In Mexico, the team is in complete control in the second half of the season, and the defending champion, Naranjeros de Hermosillo, has continued their second-half dominance. However, Tomateros de Culiacan, who had a superb first half and had fallen behind in the second half of the season, played their best baseball of the second half of the season this past week. Tomateros played 6-1 this week, bringing their second-half record to 13-13 and putting them into an overall tie for first place with Naranjeros. Both teams play for an overall 38-23 record, a clear three games above Cañeros de Mochis, who solely hold third place. Tomateros depended on who has been their most consistent player all season, MLB veteran Joey Meneses, to keep delivering the offense this week. Although Tomateros has had a challenging second half, Meneses has been a consistent source of offense for Culiacán as he has posted MVP-caliber numbers with a slash line of .333/.401/.544 over 55 games this season. Esteban Quiroz and Dwight Smith Jr have also been instrumental in Tomateros’ revival, as they feature among the league leaders in OPS, slugging, and average. The league in Mexico has also announced that Karim Garcia will be inducted into the Caribbean Series Hall of Fame in Mexicali this coming February. Garcia played in 6 series, winning the title in two of them and being named to the Series’ All-Star Team twice.
In Venezuela, teams have already begun to clinch playoff berths this week. Cardenales de Lara, Bravos the Margarita, Águilas de Zulia, and Navegantes de Magallanes have already clinched a spot in the league’s round-robin. Tigres de Aragua have been classified for the wild card series, in which they will oppose either defending champions Tiburones de la Guaira or Leones de Caracas. The winner of that wild card series will join Cardenales, Bravos, and Navegantes in the round-robin set to begin next week. Harold Castro propelled Cardenales to the league lead with offensive output, resulting in a .339/.402/.640 slashline. On the pitching side, Cardenales were given a strong performance from Jimmy Endersby, who finished the season with a 2.72 ERA, a .225 batting average against, and 1.08 WHIP.
In Puerto Rico, Indios de Mayaguez and Sendores de San Juan have been trading the league’s lead throughout the week. Indios is steadfastly holding on to the league’s lead with a record of 18-12 as it approaches its final 10 days. San Juan has not made the task easy for Indios as they only trailed the leading team by one game with a record of 17-13. Mayaguez has received tremendous offensive outputs from Isan Diaz, Anthony Garcia, and Danny Ortiz, who all three feature as the league’s leaders in Home Runs, RBI, slugging, and OPS. The final week of the season will see all the remaining teams, Leones de Ponce, Gigantes de Carolina, Cangrejeros de Santurce, and even defending Champion Criollos de Caguas, dispute the last two playoff spots. Caguas, who, in the middle of the season, looked like they would be on the outside looking in, have played much better lately, positioning themselves to be able to threaten for a playoff position.
Puerto Rico also finished the week by celebrating the induction of six new members to their Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. The new members are MLB Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar, former players Guillermo Montañez and Jerry Morales, former league executive Rodrigo Otero Suro, manager Tom Gamboa, and broadcaster Arturo Soto Cardona. You can read about the details of the ceremony at this link. https://safabpp.com/the-puerto-rico-professional-baseball-hall-of-fame-welcomes-six-new-members/
