Yuli Gurriel will be on the San Diego Padres after a solid spring with the club. The Cuban infielder will now be entering his tenth major league season with his fourth club and will be making his ninth Opening Day appearance. This preseason Gurriel hit .294 with a homer and six runs batted in for the friars.
Gurriel signed a minor league deal with a the San Diego Padres that included an invitation to spring training in February. By making the club his salary would be 1.25M and another 1M in incentives. The colleague Francys Romero was the first to report the transaction. Over his nine-year career on the grand stage the infielder hits .281 with 98 homeruns, 463 runs batted in and slashes. 326/.440/.726. Gurriel added a veteran presence that augmented a young Royals in the playoffs last season.
The Cuban was traded to the Kansas City Royals by the Atlanta Braves. Gurriel was with the Gwinnett Stripers at the time of deal, the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. According to information from Jon Heyman of the New York Post, the Braves also received cash considerations in exchange for Gurriel’s services. Even though the trade deadline was a month past, Gurriel was still eligible to be traded because he has not yet played in the major leagues this season.
He automatically was added to the 40-man roster of the Kansas City Royals , a team that was in a dogfight for first place in the American League Central Division with the Cleveland Guardians and was also in the hunt for a wild card spot along with other top AL contenders.
At the time of the trade and in 76 contest with the Braves’ farmclub he was hitting .292, with 18 doubles, one triple, 12 home runs, 48 RBIs, 38 runs scored and has only been caught once during his 12 steal attempts. At nearly 41 years of age the talented and experienced Gurriel will look return to the big leagues once again for the following campaign. The slugger could be a stabilizing veteran presence for a very talented San Diego club looking to advance deep into the playoffs this season.