After having a minor elbow surgery the put him on the shelf for the rest of last season in the Nippon League, lefty Livan Moinelo is set to return to action this winter in the Cuban Liga Elite. Sources confirmed to our sister page Pelota Cubana’s Yordan Carmona that the hurler would more than likely pitch for the Cazadores de Artemisa due to the team close proximity to Moinelo’s home province of Pinar del Río as the last step in his recovery and also something to get him in game shape heading into the next season.
SoftBank Hawks’ underwent surgery in July for osteochondritis dissecans in the elbow of his throwing arm. According to the information provided by Dr. Francisco Montesinos, medical manager of the Cuban baseball commission and federation, the intervention was successful.
Two free bodies were extracted, made up of fragments of bone and cartilage, and the player is doing very well in these first hours of recovery, explained the doctor after the surgery. The next thing will be to wait for the stitches to heal and he is able to travel to complete part of the rehabilitation in Cuba, added the specialist about the road that lied ahead for Moinelo.
Sources tell our @YordiMLB that the lefty @LivanMoinelo will pitch in the Postseason of the Liga Elite of Cuban Baseball. It is presumed that he will do it with the ARTEMISA Hunters due to its proximity to his home province of Pinar del Río. #CubanBaseballDigest #pelotacubana pic.twitter.com/GEsJ88kK3N
— Cuban Baseball Digest (@CBaseballDigest) December 25, 2023
The decision to operate was made upon discovering the free bodies in the area, but not because he felt pain that prevented him from working effectively. Moinelo was not be available for the Cuban team during the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile this November due to the surgery and the needed recovery time.
The Cuban is SoftBank’s setup man and the precursor to closer Roberto Osuna. Moinelo is only the 4th foreign reliever with more than 150 holds in Nippon League history. The diminutive hurler is arguably the best lefty reliever in the Pacific League. On the season the southpaw had 3 wins, 13 holds and five saves all as team’s setup man before being shutdown by the team. In 27 ⅔ innings pitched he has also fanned 37 batters.
Moinelo has been part of the Cuban National Team for close to a decade now and has also seen action in the Pan-American Games, Caribbean World Series and various World Baseball Classics. It was announced that the hurler would convert to a starter and pitching in the Antillean circuit is possibly the first step in this transition.
Livan Moinelo gets the save vs the Seibu Lions 6/30
1 IP
1 SOERA 1.01 #福岡ソフトバンク #モイネロ #プロ野球 #sbhawks #Cuba
pic.twitter.com/P2m8hrGSDp— CubanBaseballZone 🇨🇺⚾️🌎 (@CubanBaseballZN) July 1, 2023