SAN DIEGO – Given what Randy Arozarena had to endure just to get here, nothing can be considered impossible.
Arozarena, whose playoff role has the Tampa Bay Rays on the brink of the American League Championship Series, a talented football and baseball player in Cuba, however, after his father’s death at the age of 15, was devastated and asked his mother for permission to escape on a raft at the age of 19 in an attempt to earn money for the circle of relatives as a player baseball.
“Honestly, you just have to threaten your life for your family,” Arozarena recently told MLB. com. “When you’re in the ocean, all you think about and expect is to get there safely. There have been other people who are in the ocean for days, months, and there are others who don’t it’s because they die.
“But when in one of those fake boats in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, all you can do is hope to survive. I seized the opportunity and luckily I got here without any problem. “
Arozarena defected, played in Mexico in 2015 and signed with the Cardinals in 2016 for $1. 25 million, hit 0. 344 in the minors last year and made his deyet in the primary league, but had 23 plate appearances.
He attracted everyone after filming Cardinals manager Mike Shildt’s playoff release last October and posting it on his social media account.
The Cardinals had not planned to have compatibility in their future, the Rays were because of the intensity of the gardens and exchanged it with designated gardener/hitter Jose Martinez for best-released prospect Matthew Liberatore and hopeful capture Edgardo Rodriguez.
Arozarena missed the first five weeks of this 60-game season with COVID-19 and was not called up to the Rays until August 30.
He spent his time in quarantine learning to cook, eating only poultry and rice, making three hundred bombs a day and gaining 15 pounds of muscle.
After making his season debut on Aug. 31, Arozarena hit . 500 in his first six games with 4 home runs, including the playoffs, he has 10 home runs in his last 21 starts.
In the Rays’ 8-4 win on Wednesday night against the New York Yankees, Arozarena went 3 out of 4 with a house run, two singles and one base for balls, and now hits Array600 with 3 house runs, two doubles, one triple and 4. multi-shot games opposed to the Yankees.
He is the first rookie in American League history to produce four consecutive playoff games.
“It’s pretty impressive what he’s doing now,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.