For those who don’t remember, the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (LMB) is the country’s top baseball league, joined by the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico (LAMP), which provides winter games. While American MLB dominates most baseball conversations, the 2020s have seen quite a few All-Stars and even World Series champions spend their last years in the LMB.
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Adrian González
Being a Red Sox blog first and foremost, it’s only right we start with Adrian González. A-Gon started his pro career with the Florida Marlins, then had a stint with the Padres in 2005, where he made the All-Star three times and won two Golden Gloves.
Red Sox fans will know him best for his standout 2011 season. That was when he struck a .338 seasonal batting average, second in the MLB, winning a Silver Slugger and another Golden Glove for his trouble. By the time he was released from the MLB (after trading to the Dodgers and Mets), he had five All-Star appearances, four Gloves and two Sluggers.
Throughout his career, González played for Mexico’s national team four times at the World Baseball Classic and again at the 2020 Olympics. His time with the Padres and Dodgers saw him build up a large Mexican fanbase as El Titán. So, it was no surprise when he returned to baseball in 2021, signing for the Mariachis de Guadalajara for just one year.
He put up a respectable .340 BA with six home runs and 41 RBIs before bowing out properly. Cities deep in the interior of Mexico don’t receive as much overseas interest as the coastal towns, but they often have a thriving sports scene, and Americans can read more about them online.
Robinson Canó
While González was a familiar Red Sox hitter with a few performance peaks, Robinson Canó is one of the most accomplished MLB athletes to go to Mexico. So accomplished, in fact, that he’s the only player to win four separate championships across different leagues/events.
That started in 2009, when he was on the Yankees team that won the World Series against the Phillies. Then, being a Dominican native, he represented the Republic in 2013’s World Baseball Classic, getting the MVP nod. We should also add that he led the MLB with 1,695 hits, 363 doubles and 2,801 total bases through most of the 2010s. He also has eight All-Star appearances, Silver Sluggers and one of the best basemen stats at 68.1 Wins Above Replacement.
After leaving the MLB in 2022, he reinforced the Dominican Tigres del Licey in the 2023 Caribbean Series, which they went on to win. He’s played in each one since. Then, finally, he fell in with the Diablos Rojos del México, where he was an LMB Serie del Rey Champion. He hasn’t retired yet, though it’s certainly expected in the next few years.
Bartolo Colón
Another Dominican who made his mark on the MLB, Bartolo Colón had a long career spanning eleven different teams, including a stint with the Red Sox, but he’s remembered best for several things. The earliest was probably his Cy Young Award in 2005, for going 21-8 and leading the American League in wins with the Angels.
His greatest moment came relatively late in his career, when he hit his first and long-due home run in a 2016 showdown with the Padres. He was also a fierce pitcher in the MLB, setting a record for the most wins by a Latin-American pitcher with his 247th in August 2018.
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After leaving the MLB in 2020, he signed with the Acereros de Monclova in Northern Mexico. Needless to say, a lot of these MLB veterans don’t go south for the Mexican tourist spots. Instead, they have Latino heritage and decide to spend their last playing years in leagues closer to home. Colón did just that, playing a winter season with the Águilas Cibaeñas for the Dominican Pro Baseball League, then bowing out from pro baseball.
