The Leones de Yucatán continue to prepare for the 2022 Mexican Baseball League (LMB) season with the arrival of right-handed relief pitcher Casey Coleman, the seventh player to occupy a spot available for foreign players.
The Fort Myers, Florida native has 12 years of experience as a professional baseball player, four with the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals. During his time in the Major Leagues, Casey accumulated a 5.72 ERA in 177.2 innings where he allowed 113 earned runs, prescribed 123 strikeouts and gave 89 walks, in addition to leaving a record of 8-13 in 26 starts. This will be the second time that Coleman sees action in the Mexican summer circuit, the first one with Toros de Tijuana in 2019, leaving a mark of 2 wins and 1 loss in 14 games, as well as an ERA of 2.03 in 13.1 innings.
Similarly, the American has pitched with Naranjeros de Hermosillo and Tomateros de Culiacán in the Mexican Pacific League (LMP), representing Mexico in the 2018 Caribbean Series and breaking the record for saves (22). Coleman will join Dominicans Radhamés Liz and Ramón Torres, Venezuelan Henderson Álvarez, American Jake Thompson, Panamanian Enrique Burgos and Nicaraguan Cheslor Cuthbert as the team’s seventh foreigner.
What about Cesar Valdez?
The arrival of Coleman to the Leones bullpen occupies the last place available for a foreigner on the team’s roster, which would leave out of the plans the starter, awarded Pitcher of the Year in 2019, César Valdez, who had already had contact with the management of Yucatan in previous weeks according to David Cortés, sports manager of Leones. In the event that Valdez returns to the peninsula at some point in the season, the Leones will have to drop one of the seven previously announced.