The New York Mets presence in the Mexican Pacific League is generally small as the club has not had much of an emphasis on scouting international free agents from the country in a few years. That said, there are 3 constants who will be returning to the MPL once again for 2017.
Aguilas de Mexicali
- C Xorge Carrillo- For the 6th time in his career, Xorge Carrillo will be returning to his native country of Mexico to play for the Aguilas which reside about 2 hours from his home in Tijuana. After spending his 1st season on the bench, he has been the primary starting Catcher for the club since 2013. Last season was a career year for Carrillo as he played in 60 of the team's 68 games, posting a .286 AVG/.780 OPS with 3 HRs and 26 RBIs.
Caneros de los Mochis
- C Juan Uriarte- For the 2nd time in his career, Uriarte will be playing for his home city team. Uriarte made his debut for the club last season, serving as the team's 3rd string Catcher, and appeared in 10 games posting a .125 AVG/.388 OPS with no secondary stats. With Mochis starting catcher Sebastian Valle returning as well, Uriarte is likely still be a backup but should be promoted to the primary back up catcher with Mariners C prospect Juan Camacho serving as the 3rd string guy.
Tomateros de Culiacan
- LHP Jose Carlos Medina- For the 3rd time in his career, Medina will be playing for his home city team. Medina made his debut for the club in 2015, but, he did not become a regular until last season. As a RP, he made 13 appearances from the bullpen posting a 4.50 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 rates. With 3 of the 4 top RPs from last year's club not returning in 2017, the Tomateros could rely more on Medina this season to provide quality innings as well as serving as the club's 2nd LOOGY behind Derrick Loop.
I like Uriarte a lot as a catcher.
ReplyDeleteCarillo seems to have climbed to AAAA, not sure as a catcher his combo of offense and defense will ever be major league caliber.