Last week, Yulieski Gourriel, the latest Cuban baseball phenom, was officially declared a free agent by MLB. The 32-year-old third baseman defected from his home country this past February and has been waiting to be officially announced as a free agent. Teams are already lining up for Cuban baseball’s biggest star.
Yoenis Cespedes, Cuban defector turned multi-millionaire player in the for the Mets, says his former Cuban National Series rival was “the best player in Cuba.” Gourriel has amassed a line of .333/.414/.577 with 239 home runs and 988 RBI across 15 seasons in Cuba. While Cespedes did have a bit more power than Gourriel while playing in Cuba, Cespedes did not have the ability to hit for as high an average as his counterpart.