Andy Pages is made use of to beating the possibilities, and he’s doing it once again with the Dodgers

Growing on the western concept of Cuba, Andy Pages was successful at every showing off task he played.

He was effective football and volley ball, probably far better at basketball. Nonetheless he suched as baseball for aspects that weren’t always limited to the computer game.

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Pages’ dad, Liban, a woodworker that functioned dealing with wood watercrafts, helped make his youngster’s first bats by hand, utilizing continuing to be lumber provided to him by pals. Promptly baseball wound up being the kid’s popular recreation.

“When I was starting to play baseball in Cuba, when things were really bad, there were no bats. There weren’t points like that,” Pages stated in Spanish. “So he constantly tried to make me a bat so I could play.

” I became additional established, and from that factor on, we have really been playing baseball.”

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The showing off task inevitably verified to be a means off the island for Pages, that has actually come to be amongst the Dodgers brightest celebrities in simply his second period with the group.

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He went into the begin of a three-game collection Monday in San Diego striking. 288 with 12 home runs and 39 RBIs, tracking just Shohei Ohtani in homers and matching Ohtani for third on the team in RBIs. He’s also connected for second in swiped bases with 6 and has yet to be thrown away.

If he can stay consistent, he has an opportunity to come to be the first Dodger facility fielder to hit much better than. 250 with 25 homers because Matt Kemp in 2011

Although Pages never played in Cuba’s elite Serie Nacional, the confirming ground for celebrities such as Yuli Gurriel, Yunel Escobar and Orlando “El Duque” Hernández, he turned into one of the nation’s leading potential customers after hitting. 364/. 484/. 581 in a under- 15 organization.

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Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages rifles the ball to keystone to prevent Arizona’s Ketel Marte from bearing down a single at Dodger Arena on May 20 (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

That convinced Pages (noticable PAH-hays) he had a chance to be a big leaguer some day. So at 16, the Athletic reported , he arranged to be spirited off the island along with Jairo Pomares, one more young Cuban star, taking a trip via Guyana, Curacao and Haiti before crossing in the Dominican Republic. He then waited 8 months prior to the Dodgers authorized him as an international free agent in March 2018, providing him a $ 300, 000 benefit, more than 1, 500 times the average yearly wage in Cuba, according to CiberCuba.

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Pomares authorized with the San Francisco Giants at concerning the same time, but while he remains in the minors, Pages’ reach the majors was constant. He reached triple A by the beginning the 2024 season. He didn’t stay at Oklahoma City long, nevertheless, striking. 371/. 452/. 694 with 15 RBIs in 15 games to make a call-up to the Dodgers.

Prior to his novice season was over, Pages was a Globe Collection champ. He paid a hefty rate for that though, going seven years without seeing his household personally.

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” It was mental due to the fact that I had actually not seen them for a long period of time,” said Pages, 24, who returned to Cuba for the first time the winter before his major-league launching.

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His sis, Elaine, a child when he left ” was currently a fully grown woman.”

” So those memories went back to me, and they were fairly– just how should I state it?– fairly solid for me,” stated Pages, that brought his papa a few of the commercial bats he took advantage of in the minors.

Nonetheless if his dad gave the promote that made his youngster a baseball player, colleague Teoscar Hernández gave the aid, support and mentoring that made Pages a daily substantial leaguer.

“He’s played in the big leagues for a long period of time currently,” Pages claimed of Hernández, a 10 -year professional that authorized with the Dodgers months before Pages made his big-league debut. ” He’s been with a good deal of difficult times. I underwent that at the beginning of the period, for example, and in 2015 also. And he’s offered me tips that’s helped me a lot to survive that time.”

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With Pages’ household still in Cuba, Hernández has become a big sibling along with a teammate, taking him out for dinner on off days or just getting with each other to play computer game.