Yoelqui Céspedes: From Cuba’s Best Prospect to the Mexican League

In March 2020, Major League Baseball declared Yoelqui Céspedes a free agent and MLB Pipeline ranked him the number one international prospect in the world. He signed with the Chicago White Sox for $2.05 million, spent three seasons in their farm system, and was released in March 2024. He has never played a Major League game. In 2026 he is playing for the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League.

Career at a glance

Granma, and a World Baseball Classic at 19

Céspedes came up with the Alazanes de Granma and debuted in the Serie Nacional at 17. Over five seasons he hit .287 with a .351 on-base percentage across 226 games, and won two Cuban championships, in 2017 and 2018 — the back-to-back titles that made Granma the dominant team of the era.

He was picked for Cuba at the 2017 World Baseball Classic at the age of 19, the youngest player on the roster, and started in left field. He also played in the 2017 Caribbean Series. By then he was already the most talked-about young hitter in the country.

Leaving, in the middle of a tour

In 2019 the Cuban national team was playing a schedule in the independent Can-Am League — the arrangement that ran in 2016 and 2017 and continued as a touring side. In late June 2019, Céspedes left the delegation. Most reports place it in Dayton, Ohio; one Spanish-language MLB report described the team as being in the New York area at the time. He was not the only one: the same era produced a steady stream of departures, and two years later nine of Cuba’s 24 U-23 players left a tournament in Mexico.

He established residency in the Bahamas and trained with his half-brother Yoenis. MLB declared him a free agent on 18 March 2020, at which point he sat at number one on MLB Pipeline’s list of international prospects.

Three years in the White Sox system

He signed on 15 January 2021 for a $2.05 million bonus and went straight to full-season ball at 23.

The 2022 season was the high point: 17 home runs and 33 stolen bases in Double-A. Then 2023 went the wrong way. He hit .230 across Double-A and Triple-A, and the White Sox released him in late March 2024. Their farm director pointed at the previous season’s decline.

What went wrong

Nothing about the tools was wrong. Scouts and White Sox staff described plus raw power out of a compact frame, the speed and instincts to cover all three outfield positions, a strong arm, and a reputation as a good team-mate. The problem was the strike zone. He chased, he swung and missed too often, and the production never caught up with what the body could do. The gap between the eye test and the box score is the whole story of his professional career.

He played independent-league baseball in 2024 and, as of the 2026 season, is with the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos in Mexico. He is 28.

Which Céspedes

Yoelqui is the younger half-brother of Yoenis Céspedes, the outfielder who left Cuba in 2011 and played for Oakland, Boston, Detroit, the Mets and the White Sox. They are half-brothers, not full brothers, and they are not the same player — a distinction worth making, because Yoenis is the one with the Major League career. Yoelqui’s name is also spelled Yoelkis and Yoelquis in different sources, including his own Baseball-Reference register page.

More on Cuban baseball

• How Cuban baseball is organised, and how players get out
• Team Cuba: the national team’s full record
• All 16 Serie Nacional teams
• Everything we have written about Yoelqui Céspedes