If you are wondering what the landscape of baseball will look like during the looming work stoppage that will begin in Major League Baseball at midnight on Dec. 1, look back about 20 years to the 2004-05 lockout in the National Hockey League.
New York Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez has arrived in Valencia, Venezuela, where he'll play with the reigning Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Professional champions, the Navegantes del Magallanes, for the upcoming winter baseball season.
Alfredo Duno, the No. 1 prospect in the Cincinnati Reds organization according to MLB Pipeline, is in camp with the Leones del Caracas in his native Venezuela in advance of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional season.
The Clasico Caribeno, a two-game preseason exhibition series planned for early October featuring the Charros de Jalisco of the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico and the Cardenales de Lara of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, has been cancelled.
Francisco Rodríguez, Endy Chávez, and Tomás Pérez were elected the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame as the Class of 2026 by the Contemporary Committee, while the Venezuelan team that won the 2026 World Baseball Classic was unanimously elected by the Historical Committee.
Over the offseason, the Tiburones have been living every week like it's shark week, putting together a solid starting rotation and, just this week, adding two Major Leaguers to the lineup for the coming season.
Yasiel Puig has signed with the Senadores de San Juan in Puerto Rico's LBPRC, returning to the league where he first played winter ball as a 21-year-old prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization during the 2012-13 season with the Indios de Mayaguez.
