Alfredo Despaigne’s Transcending Career

I recently stepped out of the Cuba Dugout to pinch hit for Cosmopolitan Baseball. He is a YouTuber and is a kindred spirit to this page focusing on Japanese baseball. His latest topic bridges both of our passions. Check out Cosmopolitan’s profile of one of the top Cuban sluggers to succeed in Japan in Alfredo Despaigne. You might recognize my voice as I give a short recap of Despaigne’s rise from Granma to the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Cosmopolitan Baseball video this post was written around has since been taken down and no longer plays. The write-up below stands on its own.

Despaigne is a familiar name to those who follow Cuban baseball. However, he might leave those who watch the MLB game asking, who? He is perhaps the greatest slugger that has maintained ties with cuba. Despaigne has carried that success with him to Japan. I have focused on Despaigne with my camera and my pen in the past. You can read up on that here

The road he did not take

Almost every Cuban slugger of Despaigne’s generation who reached the wider world did it by leaving for good. He did not. Born in Granma on 17 June 1986, he stayed inside the Cuban system, kept his place with the Alazanes, and took a contract in Japan with the federation’s blessing — one of the few Cubans of his era to build an international career without severing the tie to the island.

What he left behind in the Serie Nacional is a record that stands comparison with anyone. In 2009 he hit .373 with 97 RBIs and was named National Series MVP in one of the most dominant seasons Cuban baseball has recorded. In 2012 he set a new regular-season home run record with 35. The case for Despaigne as Cuba’s true home run king is made at length in Alfredo Despaigne is De Maigne.

Ten seasons in NPB

He signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 2014 and moved to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in 2017, where he spent seven seasons.

Four titles in a row

His SoftBank years coincided with the most dominant run in modern Japanese baseball: four consecutive Japan Series titles between 2017 and 2020. He was a three-time NPB All-Star, All-Star Game MVP in 2017, and twice a Pacific League Best Nine selection.

He was not the only Cuban in that dynasty. Yurisbel Gracial arrived at SoftBank in the same period, and Liván Moinelo became one of the most dominant left-handed relievers in Japan while wearing the same uniform. For a stretch of the late 2010s, the best Cuban team outside Cuba was arguably in Fukuoka.

The biggest what if

Writing ahead of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, where Despaigne appeared for Cuba once again, I put it this way:

Perhaps the most accomplished non-MLB slugger in Cuban History. Despaigne is a veteran of 3 WBC and his 7 home runs pace all participants. Even though his peak is in the rearview, he slugged 36 home runs for SoftBank of Japan’s NPB as recently as 2019. Despaigne is perhaps the biggest what if player on the roster. He has been excellent at every level except MLB, what if he had tried his hand in The Show?

From the Team Cuba 2023 player-by-player notes

That question has no answer, and it is the point. Despaigne won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, played in four World Baseball Classics, won four Japan Series, and set home run records in two countries. The one league he never appeared in is the one most English-language readers use as the measure of everything.

Where he is now

SoftBank released him in December 2023 after an injury-shortened final season. He returned to the Serie Nacional with Granma in 2024 — the same club he started with, more than twenty years on.

More on Cubans playing outside MLB: Cuban baseball, a complete guide · Team Cuba

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