Mexico and Venezuela entered week two of competition of their respective Caribbean Winter Leagues this week. At the same time, the Dominican Republic saw the managerial debut of a legend with a win in their opening week, and Panama announced the start date of their league.
In Mexico, Tomateros de Culiacán has emerged as the early leader of the pack, compiling a 5-1 record. Cristian Santana, a Dominican Winter League veteran and former LA Dodgers prospect, has been instrumental in Tomateros’ quick start. In the season’s first six games, Santana has ten hits in 22 at-bats this season, with 1 HR and 6 RBI for an OPS of 1.093. Puerto Rico Winter League and MLB veteran Dwight Smith JR has also been instrumental to the offense in Culiacan, collecting 2 HR, 5 RBI, and scoring five runs. Another MLB veteran, Manny Barreda has been doing his part on the pitching side for Tomateros, earning two wins by pitching 11 and 1/3rd of an inning, allowing only five hits and striking out eight batters. The 2024 Caribbean Series hosts Águilas de Mexicali and Cañeros de Mochis (Los Mochis), have also begun their season on a winning note. Both teams have compiled a record of 4-2 to begin the season. The offensive assault by Mexicali was led by Julián León, who had a .455/.625/.545 slashline with an OPS of 1.170. Rolando Bolaños and Darrel Torres have led their team on the pitching side, each pitching five scoreless innings in their respective outings.
Competition was fierce during the first week of the Venezuela Winter League. At times, every team has shown they can be competitive, but Navegantes de Magallanes and Cardenales de Lara are the current standing leaders with a record of 4-2. Defending Caribbean Series champions Tiburones de la Guaira recovered well from their Opening Night blowout for an overall record of 4-3. Magallanes and Cardenales have been led by a pair of MLB veterans, Renato Nuñez, and Lenyn Sosa. Both Nuñez and Sosa have gotten off to a scorching start offensively and are entering play today, and they are both hitting an identical .565 batting average. Nuñez has also contributed 5 HR to his team, which leads the league. Leones de Caracas’ Danny Ortiz is in second place with 3 HR. Another player who offensively has been tearing it up is Milwaukee Brewers’ infielder Andruw Monasterio, who has hit .476 with a league-leading OPS of 1.260 for Caribes de Anzoategui. On the pitching side, Magallanes has significantly benefitted from performances by Junior and Deolis Guerra. Junior has pitched 12 innings, not having allowed a run, and barely any baserunners with a WHIP of 0.42. At the same time, Deolis has also not allowed a single run and has allowed a few more baserunners than Junior for a WHIP of 0.82.
LIDOM saw its first day of competition this past Wednesday in the Dominican Republic, and legendary team Leones del Escogido began their season with 2 wins, the first two wins in the managerial career of future Hall of Famer, Albert Pujols. Both wins have come up dramatically. The first win came up on Opening Night on a walkoff HR by MLB veteran Junior Lake, while the second was on a walkoff hit by Erik Gonzalez. Ecstatic by his team’s early resilience, Pujols stated, «This is just the beginning; we will keep working hard.»
In Puerto Rico, teams are finalizing rosters for the start of their season in a few weeks. MLB veterans and current prospects are featured in the LBPRC rosters. Names include former AL MVP Jose Abreu, who has signed a contract to play for the returning Senadores de San Juan. Abreu hopes to utilize this opportunity for a possible return to MLB. San Juan has also signed Brice Matthews and Zach Dezenzo, who are highly touted prospects of the Houston Astros. Benny Montgomery, currently a high-ranked prospect of the Colorado Rockies, and Independent League and Mexico Winter League veteran, Josh Altmann have signed to play with Leones de Ponce, who looks to reach the Finals this year after coming up short last year. Ponce has also added MLB veteran Andrew Velazquez to their team, which will make for an exciting outfield for Leones. Gigantes de Carolina has signed Japanese pitcher Shinto Fujinami, a 3X Nippon Professional Baseball All-star, to reinforce their team. Fujinami was hampered by a shoulder injury last year, and Gigantes hope a healthy return can be the determining factor in their season.
Finally, in Panama, the President of PROBEIS (Panama’s Baseball Federation) and former MLB All-Star Carlos Lee announced that their season would begin on November 29th. The champion of the Panama league will not be participating in the Caribbean Series in 2025; instead, they will join in Serie de las Americas, a newly created tournament by the ABAM (Asociación de Beisbol de las Americas), which is a recently founded Caribbean baseball organism. ABAM has announced that Serie de las Americas will debut as a tournament from January 24th through January 30th in Nicaragua. The tournament will feature the champions of the Winter Leagues of Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Curacao, Argentina, and Cuba. «This tournament is not expected to serve as competition to the Caribbean Series, but as an alternate way to develop the competition among these Winter Leagues,» stated Nemesio Porras, FENIBA (Nicaragua’s Baseball Federation) president and one of the organizers of the event.
