Of the four players who left Cuba around the Can-Am League tours, Julio Pablo Martínez is the only one who was there two seasons running — for Cuba in 2016, and then, in 2017, for a Can-Am club of his own, against them. He is also the only one of the three big prospects who actually reached the Major Leagues, with less fanfare than either of the others. He got there in 2023, with the Texas Rangers. It lasted 24 games across two seasons, and he is playing in Mexico now.
Career at a glance
| Born | 21 March 1996, Baracoa, Guantánamo province |
|---|---|
| Bats / throws | Left / left |
| Position | Outfielder |
| Cuban teams | Guantánamo, then Isla de la Juventud, 2012–2016 — .293 with 22 HR |
| Can-Am | 2016 with Cuba; 2017 with the Aigles de Trois-Rivières — .297/.345/.449 |
| Left Cuba | November 2017, via Haiti |
| Signed | Texas Rangers, April 2018, $2.8 million bonus |
| MLB | Rangers 2023 (17 games), Atlanta Braves 2024 (7 games) — .220 in 50 at-bats |
| 2026 | Saltillo Saraperos, Mexican League |
Baracoa to the Can-Am
Martínez came up through Guantánamo and Isla de la Juventud, five Serie Nacional seasons at .293. He played for Cuba during the first Can-Am tour: the 11–9 team of 2016, alongside an 18-year-old Luis Robert, and that is where the record usually stops getting it right. His 2016 showing earned him a contract of his own with the Aigles de Trois-Rivières for 2017, so on the second tour he was on the other side of the field — playing against the 5–16 Cuban team he had toured with a year before. He hit .297/.345/.449 for Trois-Rivières across that season. The contract was also his way out. Roger Machado’s line about the 2016 roster paired him with Robert: speed, contact, and baseball intelligence.
That November he left, establishing residency in Haiti, and in April 2018 the Texas Rangers signed him for $2.8 million — at the time one of the biggest international bonuses of the period.
The long road, and 24 games
It took five minor-league seasons. He climbed from Single-A through Triple-A between 2018 and 2023, and made his Major League debut with the Rangers in 2023 — seventeen games for the team that won the World Series that autumn, though he was not on the postseason roster. Atlanta gave him seven more games in 2024. The final Major League line is 11 hits in 50 at-bats, a .220 average.
Since then he has taken the road so many Cuban players end up on: the Mexican League, where he plays for the Saltillo Saraperos in 2026, with winter ball at Culiacán. He is 30.
The four who left
Set beside the other Can-Am departures, Martínez is the middle case. Luis Robert became an All-Star. Yoelqui Céspedes, the number one prospect in the world, never played a Major League game. Martínez got there — briefly — which is more than most who make the same journey ever do. Lázaro Ramírez, the first to go, never did.
More
- When Cuba played North America: the Can-Am League years
- Yoelqui Céspedes: career, stats and where he is now
- How Cuban baseball is organised
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