The Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional’s five-team, 16-game round robin playoff resumes tonight after four off days, but one of the league’s top players, Aguilas del Zulia outfielder Jackson Chourio, won’t be back.
Chourio, a native of Maracaibo, where the Aguilas play, has left Venezuela in the wake of the U.S. military raid in the early morning hours of Jan. 3 that resulted in the capture of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores. Following Maduro’s capture, the LVBP suspended the playoffs for four days.
Nearly 30 players with contracts to play for Major League Baseball organizations in 2026 are still active in the LVBP playoffs, and teams have urged them to leave the country, according to a report from Cesar Sequera of El Emergente, a Venezuelan baseball media site, which noted that, at least so far, the recommendation that Venezuelan players leave the country is merely a recommendation.
In the report, Sequera notes that whether Chourio’s departure from the Aguilas and Venezuela was at the request of his MLB club, the Milwaukee Brewers.
Other notable players still in Venezuela include Jackson Chourio’s brother Jason, who is a Cleveland Guardians prospect, New York Mets infielder Luisangel Acuna, who is playing with the Cardenales de Lara, Andrés Chaparro of the Washington Nationals, and multiple minor league prospects.
American Pitchers Grotz, Williams Still In Venezuela – Fewer than 10 players from the United States appeared in the LVBP this season, but two notable pitchers remain in the country.
Aguilas del Zulia starter Zac Grotz, who made 19 appearances in MLB with the Seattle Mariners in the 2019 and 2020 seasons, started Zulia’s round robin opener on Jan. 2, allowing four hits and a walk over six shutout innings in the Aguilas’ 6-5, 10-inning win against the Navegantes de Magallanes. A native of San Mateo, California, Grotz is expected to start for the Aguilas Wednesday night when they face the Bravos de Margarita in Porlamar at 6 p.m. EST.
Reliever Ronnie Williams, who turned 30 on Tuesday, played with the Tigres de Aragua during the regular season and joined the Cardenales de Lara for the playoffs, and allowed one run on one hit, striking out three in one inning of work in the defending champions’ 6-5, 10-inning win over the Caribes de Anzoategui on Jan. 2. Williams rose as high as Triple-A in the San Francisco Giants chain in 2022 before embarking on a career abroad, pitching in South Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, as well as with the Cleburne, Texas Railroaders of the independent American Association over the past three years.
Photo: Ronnie Williams is one of two Americans still playing in the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional. (Photo courtesy of LVBP)
