Astro Gurriel sets bar for Blue Jay brother
HOUSTON— Yulieski Gurriel smashed his 14th homer as part of a three-hit evening that saw him reach base five times against the Blue Jays on Friday.
Afterward he called his younger brother Lourdes Jr., a Blue Jays prospect, to debrief him on the damage he’d done against his sibling’s future team.
In the first family of Cuban baseball, the 33-year-old Astros infielder is the middle child — older brother Yunieski is a retired pro, and father Lourdes Sr. remains one of Cuba’s most loved players. But a standout career in Cuba’s National Series made Yulieski the family’s best-known and, un- til this year, its biggest mystery.
Gurriel hit .335 with a .997 on-base plus slugging mark over 15 seasons spent mostly in Cuba, and anchored third base for a powerhouse national team. But questions persisted about whether he could do it in the major leagues.
Five months into his first season, Gurriel is answering emphatically: hitting .290 with14 homers and leading AL rookies with 30 doubles for the American League’s top team — soothing doubts about his decision.
“I felt like something was lacking in my career,” said Gurriel, who signed a fiveyear, $47.5-million U.S. deal last summer. “Early on, I achieved big things in Cuba, but there was always an uncertainty . . . if I could play in the big leagues.”
Gurriel has made a smooth transition to the Astros, where he occupies a locker a few spots over from star second baseman Jose Altuve. Above their cubicles hang portraits emblazoned with the words Earn It. Altuve’s honours the AL player-of-the-month award he won in July, while Gurriel’s is in recognition of being named the league’s top rookie that month.
Altuve chuckled at the notion that Gurriel is a rookie.
By 2016, many of Cuba’s best players had already defected and Gurriel slashed .500/.589/.874 against overmatched National Series pitchers. Those stats bolstered his mystique, but when he joined the Astros teammates learned his skills weren’t a myth.
“I’m not calling him old. I’m calling him a veteran,” Altuve said. “He hits inside pitches. He knows when he has to pull or go the other way.
“I had heard about him and what he was capable of, but when we signed him and I saw him play I was like, ‘yeah, people were right.’ ”
Gurriel says adjusting to majorleague competition has been more challenging than his stats indicate. He’s still learning to keep pace with harder throwers who have more resources than the ones he faced before.
“With today’s technology, pitchers have really improved,” Gurriel said. “They’re already good pitchers who throw hard with a lot of velocity . . . but the pitches all move. Hardly any pitches come straight.”
Still, Astros manager A.J. Hinch says Gurriel’s baseball pedigree and on-field experience primed him to make the leap to major-league competition.
“He’s not a rookie in life,” Hinch said. “He’s embracing the opportunity, and given that he’s experienced so much in his life he probably appreciates it more.”
Under an agreement between the Japanese league and Cuba’s baseball federation, Gurriel played 62 games with Yokohama in 2014. The experiment lasted only one season — Gurriel batted .305 with 11 homers — but it stoked his curiosity about the majors. In February of 2016, he and Lourdes Jr. finally defected, sneaking away from their team during the Caribbean World Series in the Dominican Republic and resurfacing in Panama, where they auditioned for big-league scouts.
Gurriel calls the decision to leave Cuba difficult, but as his club closes in on a playoff berth while he contends for rookie of the year and his family resettles in the United States, he says he made the right choice.
“There had always been people interested in me coming here, but it never entered my (mind),” he said. “Time passed and I changed my mind. I didn’t want to end my career without trying to play in the major leagues.”
“He’s not a rookie in life.” ASTROS MANAGER A.J. HINCH ON 33-YEAR-OLD YULIESKI GURRIEL