After seeing several veteran players leave via free agency, the Stars will bet on the great young talent they have, most of them with great development in the minority circuits.
Junior Lake, Gustavo Núñez, Wirfin Obispo, Radhamés Liz, Sandber Pimentel took better offers from the teams with which they agreed and abandoned the series 23, which despite this will bet on their combination of youth and seniority to be competitors once again .
Manny García, who is making his debut as general manager, said that the young talent of the Stars is abundant and it is only necessary to highlight the fact that last year they won the Rookie of the Year award for the fourth time in a row, after the one achieved by Rainer Núñez , the only time this has happened in the history of the Dominican League.
“We made an overhuman effort to retain several of our players, we presented them with good offers, we went to the homes of some of them, but unfortunately they took the options that they understood were more convenient for them,” García told Listín Diario from the base of Arizona D-Backs workouts.
Although he regrets that several have left, he says that the team must move forward and the best thing is that they have the talent to form a great club with the ability to return to the finals again, as has happened in the last two years.
And García refers to the fact of having the possibility of counting from the first days with at least three of the last four Rookies of the Year in Lewin Díaz, Edwin Uceta and Núñez, who together with talents like José Tena, who hit .259 (139 -36) with five doubles, two home runs and 16 RBIs as shortstop last season, Rodolfo Durán, who also had a magnificent performance.
Other youngsters are George Valera, an outfielder, a shortstop powerhouse like Angel Martínez, who could be getting a lot of playing time, plus a group of established players like Elehuris Montero, Maikel Adolfo, Domingo Leyba, Eric Mejía, Jayson Guzmán, Cristian patch.
This group is joined by a veteran of the lineage of Robinson Canó, in addition to the material that the Stars will import.
“I’m sure we’ll have a good team, we have a group of talented youngsters who would be making their debut in the championship this year,” he said. Some examples are represented by Martínez, William Lugo, Alexander Ramírez, Kevin Madé, Abraham de Jesús among others.
The meetings
Garcia said they went to great lengths to retain Lake and Nunez, made great offers with side benefits, but both chose to explore new horizons.
The executive wished luck to the players who agreed as free agents with other clubs and thanked them for the time they dedicated to the Stars.