Leonys Martín Tápanes

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In today's baseball, young outfielder Leonys Martín stands out, and one can without shame call him the Ichiro Suzuki of the league for his similarity to the Japanese prodigy of the Seattle Mariners.

Like Suzuki, Martín is a very fast man, with great range in the outfield, equally forward and back as left and right, in addition to possessing an excellent arm.

On top of that, he is extremely skillful with a bat in hand and can just as easily send the ball to right field as between the shortstop and third base, plus he gets many hits with ground balls, similar to Suzuki.

Finally, despite not having an impressive physique, just like the Japanese player, Martín, who defended the colors of Villa Clara in the Cuban Championship, can send the ball beyond the fences.

The previous year, Martín averaged .398 and lost the batting leadership by only a few thousandths to the experienced Matanzas player Yoandri Garlobo, despite playing only his second season in the top category.

Víctor Mesa, one of the glories of Cuban baseball and manager of Villa Clara, commented about him a few months ago: "he is the player who most resembles me of all those playing in the tournament."

Martín defended Cuba's colors in the II World Baseball Classic, a good credential for a kid of only 21 years old, on a roster that featured powerful hitters like home run hitters Alfredo Despaigne, Yoennis Céspedes and Frederich Cepeda.

All these merits, in addition to playing second base masterfully, were important when selecting the team for the very strong tournament.

In Cuba, Leonys participated in five National Series during which he averaged .314, hit 38 home runs, drove in 190 runs and stole 83 bases. He also made the national team on several occasions, including the team that participated in the second World Baseball Classic in 2009, in which he stood out for being the youngest player on the team.

In 2011 Leonys is in the United States and signed for 15 million with the Texas Rangers thus achieving one of his dreams, becoming a Major League player.

Before arriving at the NPB, the virtuous Villa Clara player reached the highest level of baseball, the Major Leagues (MLB), from 2011 to 2019. There, with the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians he averaged .244, with 58 home runs, 228 RBIs and 126 stolen bases.

In 2021 Leonys Martín made history in Japanese baseball by becoming the most valuable position player in March-April in the Pacific League after an excellent start to the season in the Japanese Professional Baseball League (NPB), the league in which he has played since 2019.