Omar Vizquel, one of the greatest players to come from Venezuela, is waiting hopefully for a call from the Leones del Caracas to become their next manager after the team parted ways with Jose Alguacil.
Vizquel led the Gigantes de Rivas in Nicaragua’s Asociation de Beisbol Profesional Nacional to the winter league’s championship series this past year, his first season managing since 2021, when he was fired from the Toros de Tijuana of Mexico’s summer league, the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol.
While the Caracas club has yet to name a new general manager who would be in charge of hiring the next skipper, Vizquel is hopeful
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do all this time (be manager of Leones del Caracas). I’ve been waiting for the right moment for the Leones to at least give me a chance to talk with them,” he told journalist Carlos Mauricio Ramírez in a post on Instagram.
Vizquel managed Venezuela’s 2017 World Baseball Classic squad to a 2-5 mark. He later managed in the Chicago White Sox minor league system, first at Advanced-A Winston-Salem, where his club went 84-54, and then Double-A Birmingham, before he was fired following allegations of sexual abuse by a male team employee in Birmingham.
He was named manager of the Toros in December 2019, but didn’t take the helm until the 2021 season, as the 2020 season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Tijuana got off to a hot start under Vizquel, going 22-8 to start the year. The club then won just 12 of its next 26 games, and Vizquel was fired.
While managing Tijuana, Vizquel’s then-wife Bianca alleged that Vizquel abused her on several occasions during their marriage. Vizquel denied the allegations, and the couple divorced, with charges she had pressed against Vizquel being dropped.
This past season with Rivas, the Gigantes finished atop the regular-season standings at 21-11 under Vizquel and went 9-3 in the round robin playoffs. They lost the championship series 4-3 to the Leones de Leon.
Cabrera’s Tenure Extended By Caribes – After a surprising turnaround and a run to the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional championship series, the Caribes de Anzoategui have given manager Asdrubal Cabrera a contract extension.
“Thank God. We were finally able to reach an agreement and a two-year extension,” Cabrera told Venezuelan outlet Meridiano in Spanish. “I’m happy with the result we saw. It wasn’t easy at all, a season with quite a few ups and downs, but we achieved our goal.”
Cabrera’s Caribes went 28-28 in the regular season, finishing tied for fifth place with the Tigres de Aragua. They beat the Tigres in the two-game wild card series, where the fifth place team starts with a one-game advantage. Anzoategui went 10-6 in the 16-game round robin, making the LVBP championship series against the Navegantes de Magallanes, falling in six games.
For 2026-27, Cabrera told Meridiano he hopes that the club will improve the quality of the pitching staff. “Right now we don’t really know the plans. I still say that this season is about pitchers. We have to find good pitchers. If you have good pitchers, you have a good chance of making the playoffs again.“
Key free agent Aldrem Corredor has yet to be signed for the coming season, as well, and Cabrera wouldn’t mind if he came to Puerto La Cruz this coming winter.
“He’s a player that any team would want on their roster,” Cabrera said of Corredor, who has played all 291 games of his LVBP career with the Leones del Caracas. “If I told you I wouldn’t want Corredor, I’d be lying, but that’s out of my hands and we have to wait for management to do their job.”
