Robinson Cano will play another winter with his hometown club, the Estrellas Orientales of LIDOM.
😳 ¡QUÉ PALO DE ROBINSON CANÓ!
📹: LIDOM#LIDOMxESPN pic.twitter.com/qFSpBEmDfK
— ESPN.com.do🇩🇴 (@ESPN_DO) January 3, 2025
And Cano won’t be the only player with Major League experience in the lineup when winter rolls around in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He’ll be joined by Domingo Tapia, Esmil Rogers and Adalberto Mondesi, who is making a return to professional baseball after nearly three years away.
Cano made 11 appearances for the Estrellas last winter, going 12-for-34 with a homer and six RBIs, and joined the Leones del Escogido as a reinforcement for the Caribbean Series in Mexicali, Mexico, where he went 2-for-24 with three runs scored and an RBI, as the Leones took their first Caribbean Series title in 13 years with a 1-0 win over Mexico’s Charros de Jalisco in the championship game.
In all, Cano has played in nine winter seasons for the Estrellas and in five Caribbean Series, playing 115 games total.
Tapia joins relievers Pedro Strop and Jhan MarÃñez as notable bullpen signings for the Estrellas. He’s played eight seasons in LIDOM with the Gigantes del Cibao and the Leones del Escogido, appearing in 50 games with a 3.61 ERA in 42 1/3 innings of work. After making seven relief appearances with Escogido last winter and posting a 6.35 ERA, he went to Venezuela and finished the winter with the Tiburones de La Guaira, throwing three innings in four appearances.
Rogers was the MVP of the 2025 Caribbean Series, after joining the Leones del Escogido as reinforcement, and went 1-1 in two starts, throwing 12 2/3 innings and allowing just two runs for a 1.42 ERA. He earned the win in the championship game against the Charros de Jalisco, allowing just two runs over 6 2/3 innings. He made 210 MLB appearances from 2009-16 for four different teams before embarking on an international sojourn that has seen him pitch in Taiwan, South Korea, and Mexico during the summers before returning to the Dominican Republic each winter. He’s made 92 appearances and 74 starts over 14 seasons in Dominican winter ball, 12 with the Tigres del Licey and the last two with the Toros del Este, posting a career LIDOM ERA of 3.01.
Mondesi, 29, has sat out the last few years due to a knee injury, but is expected to be the starter at shortstop for the Estrellas. The son of 1994 National League Rookie of the Year Raul Mondesi led the American League in triples in 2019 and stolen bases in 2022, and is the first player to make his Major League debut in the World Series.
WBN Dominican Republic: https://worldbaseball.com/league/dominican-republic/
Photo: Starter Esmil Rogers threw six shutout innings for the Dominican Republic, allowing one hit, five walks, and striking out four, as the Dominican Republic won their fourth Caribbean Series title in six years. (Photo Courtesy of CBPC)
