Yunesky Maya Mendizula

Right-handed pitcher for the Washington Nationals, and former member of Cuba's national baseball team and the Pinar del Río roster of the National Series. He was part of the Cuban team in 2006 and 2009 for the World Baseball Classic.

Maya led the National Series with a 1.61 ERA in 2004-05, and followed with a record of 7-9 and an effectiveness of 3.79 in 2005-06.

In the 2008-2009 National Series season, Maya finished with a record of 13-4 and seven complete games, and finished second among league leaders in effectiveness with a 2.22 ERA. He was also second in strikeouts with 119, behind Aroldis Chapman, who had 130.

With this performance, Maya was selected as the best rookie of that national series. During six seasons of the Cuban National Series, Maya accumulated a record of 48-29 and an effectiveness of 2.51.

In the summer of 2009, Maya was expelled from the Cuban national team for "serious disciplinary problems," presumably after a failed attempt at illegal departure from the country.

In September 2009, Maya left Cuba, following the example of other Cuban baseball players who have pursued lucrative professional careers outside of Cuba. After living in the Dominican Republic for nine months, the U.S. Department of Treasury authorized him to sign with a Major League team.

On July 31, 2010, he signed with the Washington Nationals. Maya moved quickly through the minor league system, so he made only five game starts before receiving the call to the Major Leagues, when rosters were expanded in September. In the minor leagues, he started two games for the GCL Nationals; one game for the Potomac Nationals, and two games for the Syracuse Chiefs, combining 21-1/3 innings pitched and an overall effectiveness of 3.38 ERA.

He pitched five innings in his first major league game on September 7, 2010, against the New York Mets. After a difficult start (allowing a three-run home run by Ike Davis in the first inning), he retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced.

On May 29, 2011, Maya was called up by the Washington Nationals to take the rotation spot of Tom Gorzelanny, who was placed on the injured list. Collin Balester was transferred to Triple-A Syracuse to make room. He was designated for assignment on May 25, 2013. However, the Nationals reclaimed him and sent him directly to the Syracuse Chiefs.

On December 11, 2013, Maya signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves. On July 11, 2014, Maya was released by the Braves organization.

On July 25, 2014, he signed with the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization on a one-year contract for $175,000, replacing Chris Volstad in their starting rotation. Maya posted a record of 2-4 and an effectiveness of 4.86 in 11 starts for the Bears, who brought him back for the 2015 season. On April 9, 2015, Maya no-hit the Nexen Heroes at home in a 1-0 victory, the 12th no-hitter in the 33-year history of the KBO. He threw 136 pitches and struck out 8 batters in his effort. On June 16, 2015, Maya was released by the Bears after the team signed Anthony Swarzak. He had struggled with an 8.17 effectiveness since throwing his no-hitter.

On February 2, 2016, Maya signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Maya spent the season with Triple-A Salt Lake Bees before electing free agency on November 7, 2016.

On June 18, 2018, Maya signed with the Rieleros de Aguascalientes of the Mexican League. He was released on August 1, 2018.

On March 1, 2019, Maya signed with the Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League. He was released on April 13, 2019.

After the 2020 season, he played for the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Professional Dominican Baseball League (LIDOM). He also played for the Dominican Republic in the 2021 Caribbean Series.

Maya's story is there, and if his arrival with the Washington Nationals did not bear fruit as everyone hoped and the great opportunity slipped away, at least he arrived, and once again it reminds us of him dominating in that game he won, the only one he could win at the highest level of Major League Baseball.

Or also his game in the KBO, where in the midst of a bad season, he showed his mettle and threw a no-hitter. At that moment everyone thought Maya was fading, but no, surgery came, then a period of calm, and little by little he returned to the field.

In the Dominican Republic, the man from Pinar has his second homeland, he is almost a god, and he has already played in several Caribbean Series wearing the uniforms of Dominican teams in these tournaments for the pride of Dominicans and Cubans.

Yunesky Maya has already written his story and walks as a legend of Caribbean baseball, and although his name continues shrouded in ostracism and only sometimes in small brushstrokes is he spoken of, even with fear, without a doubt Maya, to this day, is one of the great pitchers of this century.

It was in the year 2009, in that game against Japan, that hit by Owasagara that fell away from Céspedes, the speculation grows and the most varied hypotheses arise, because if Maya had thrown that zero, surely history would have been different, the history of the Cuban team, the history of Yunesky Maya himself.

Today his story is almost over, and once again honors are paid to that boy who picked up balls at Capitán San Luis, the same one who one day wanted to dream of stepping up to the mound, he did it, and today he looks back with a smile, sees his childhood face, the green and yellow uniform of Pinar, Rubén Rivera's home run in that first World Classic, then he laughs again, shows himself simple, very simple, and that makes him all the greater...