Yoennis Yera of Team Cuba pitchs at the bottom of the 5th inning during the World Baseball Classic exhibition game between Cuba and Rakuten Monkeys at Douliu Baseball Stadium on March 05, 2023 in Douliu, Taiwan. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images)
Cuban starting pitcher Yoennis Yera will return to Charros de Jalisco for the 2023-24 Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico season, Yusseff Diaz of Pelota Cubana reported on Friday.
This season, the 33-year old Matanzas native played with Olmecas de Tabasco in Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. He started in 13 games with a 4-3 record, posting a 2.90 ERA and throwing 68.1 innings while allowing 55 hits, 22 earned runs, four home runs, 24 walks, and 67 strikeouts including a 1.156 WHIP.
Last winter, Yera started in 12 games for Jalisco, posting a 5-4 record with a 3.10 ERA, throwing 61 innings and allowing 66 hits, 21 earned runs, two home runs, 17 walks, and 44 strikeouts while facing 261 batters recording a 1.361 WHIP.
In Yera’s first year with Olmecas de Tabasco, he threw 86.2 innings in 17 starts, posting an 8-2 record with a 3.01 ERA and allowing 82 hits, 29 earned runs, seven home runs, 34 walks, and 88 strikeouts along with a 1.338 WHIP.
Yera was selected to the Cuban national team 53-man preselection roster for the 2023 Pan American Games after helping Cuba earn silver at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. After the gold medal game was rained out, Mexico earned the gold due to having a better overall record than all of the participating countries at the event.
Yera will have to be granted permission by Charros de Jalisco to participate in the Pan American Games during late October.
Yera started in two games at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean against Curacao and Nicaragua. He threw 10 innings posting a 2.10 ERA recorded two wins allowing nine hits, three earned runs, two walks, and striking out 16 batters.
Cuba is ranked No. 8 in the World Baseball Rankings and will appear in the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile aiming for their 13th gold medal at the event.
The Pan American Games will have a total of eight nations in the baseball event, including No. 3 Mexico, No. 6 Venezuela, No. 10 Dominican Republic, No. 11 Panama, No. 16 Colombia, No. 24 Brazil, and host nation Chile, which is not ranked in the World Baseball Rankings. Chile has not been ranked in two consecutive World Baseball Ranking cycles, including the rankings released on December 31, 2022 and March 28, 2023, after the World Baseball Classic.
The Pan American Games baseball tournament will be held from October 18 to October 28 at the Baseball and Softball Center in Cerrillos, Chile.
Yera in his 16 professional seasons spanning from Serie Nacional, Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, and Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico is 123-65 in 217 starts with a 3.24 ERA throwing 1,466.2 innings allowing 1,423 hits, 541 earned runs, 102 home runs, 428 walks, and 1,315 strikeouts alongside a 1.262 WHIP.
The Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico 2023-24 regular season will begin on October 13.
The Charros de Jalisco will play at home against Venados de Mazatlan at 9:30 p.m. EDT on October 13 at Estadio Panamericano.
All Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico regular season games will be streamed on https://www.extrabase.tv/home with a paid subscription through the final out of their championship series in January, right before the 2024 Caribbean Series in Miami at loanDepot Park.