Sancti Spíritus, 17 October 2026. Frederich Cepeda hit the 400th home run of his Serie Nacional career on Saturday afternoon at Estadio José Antonio Huelga, his home park. He is 46, he is in his 28th Serie Nacional season, and he is only the fourth player in the league’s history to reach 400. The other three are Orestes Kindelán, Lázaro Junco and Omar Linares.
It came as a three-run shot in the seventh inning against Ciego de Ávila, and it did not save the game: the Tigres won 11–8. Most of the Spanish-language reports also give the wrong date. This is the English record of what happened, when, and what Cepeda can still chase in a 44-game season.
The home run
The Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) and Directorio Cubano’s game report agree on the main facts. It was the bottom of the seventh, Cepeda came up with two men on, and the home run cut into a Ciego de Ávila lead in a game Sancti Spíritus went on to lose 11–8. It was his third home run of Serie Nacional 65. He started the season on 397.
Elsa Ramos of Escambray, the Sancti Spíritus provincial paper, was at the game and adds the detail. It was Cepeda’s fourth plate appearance, after Ciego de Ávila had already walked him intentionally once. With runners on first and second, he hit a pitch from Diorlis Pérez out to straightaway centre field at 4:44 pm. Directorio Cubano lists Pérez as the winning pitcher. As Cepeda walked to the plate the power went out, so the stadium announcer could not call the moment and the local stream dropped. Fans in the stands recorded it on their phones.
He almost hit 401 in the ninth. Right fielder Brayan Romero, a defensive replacement, caught his drive at the wall (Escambray). Cepeda told the paper he knew the 400th was gone as soon as he hit it, and that he enjoyed watching it fly. His son, Frederich Jr., missed filming the 300th in 2019 as an 11-year-old. This time, at 18, he filmed it.
The date: 17 October, not 18
ACN’s report, which Escambray republished at 1:41 pm on 18 October, says the home run came “today”. Beisbolencuba.com, citing the same statistician’s records, lists the date as 18 October 2026. Both are a day late. Escambray’s reporter at the game places it on the afternoon of 17 October, and Directorio Cubano’s game report was published that same Saturday evening and dates the game “sábado 17 de octubre”. We use 17 October.
The 400 club
Four players have hit 400 home runs in Cuba’s Serie Nacional. The career totals below match in ACN, Escambray, beisbolencuba.com and Directorio Cubano. The dates the other three reached 400 come from ACN, citing the statistician Benigno Daquinta.
| Player | Serie Nacional home runs | Reached 400 |
|---|---|---|
| Orestes Kindelán | 487 | 29 January 1997 |
| Lázaro Junco | 405 | 27 January 1996 (the first) |
| Omar Linares | 404 | 10 February 2002 |
| Frederich Cepeda | 400 | 17 October 2026 |
Cepeda needs four more home runs to tie Linares for third, five to tie Junco, and six to pass Junco and move into second, behind only Kindelán. That will be hard in a short season. Serie Nacional 65 is a 44-game season, Sancti Spíritus have played 14 of those games, and Cepeda is about to miss a week (see below). He told Escambray he expects about 20 games to be left when he returns. ACN’s report says he could still finish his career second only to Kindelán.
The pace has picked up, too. In March 2025 WorldBaseball.com counted Cepeda at 372, after he passed Antonio Muñoz for fourth on the list. Since then he has hit 28 more.
Four milestones, three in the same park
ACN and beisbolencuba.com both cite Daquinta’s records for the dates of Cepeda’s 100th, 200th and 300th home runs. Three of his four century marks came at the Huelga. His first Serie Nacional home run came on 31 October 1998, also at the Huelga, against Industriales’ Luis Alberto González (ACN).
| Home run | Date | Ballpark | Pitcher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 3 February 2005 | José Antonio Huelga, Sancti Spíritus | Yoalkis Cruz (Las Tunas) |
| 200 | 11 January 2011 | Nelson Fernández, San José de las Lajas | Yulieski González (La Habana) |
| 300 | 24 August 2019 | José Antonio Huelga, Sancti Spíritus | Maikel Martínez (Isla de la Juventud) |
| 400 | 17 October 2026 | José Antonio Huelga, Sancti Spíritus | Diorlis Pérez (Ciego de Ávila) |
Cepeda raised the obvious objection to the comparison himself. Asked by Escambray about the aluminium-bat era, when the men above him hit many of their home runs, he would not rank eras. He said every generation plays in its own time. He also said, unexpectedly, “I am not a slugger.” By his own account he has never led a Serie Nacional season in home runs. He puts his totals down to consistency over 28 seasons.
Other records within reach
Beisbolencuba.com lists Cepeda as the Serie Nacional’s all-time leader in hits, doubles, extra-base hits, runs batted in, on-base percentage and walks. Escambray says the same and, citing Daquinta’s figures as of the 400th home run, gives the numbers behind the next chases:
- Runs scored: 1,622. The record is Enrique Díaz’s 1,638, so Cepeda needs 17 to pass him. This is the record he told the paper is closest.
- Hits: 2,677, already the record. With 23 more he reaches 2,700.
- Doubles: 514, the record. Yordanis Samón is two behind on 512 and is still active.
We have not found a second source for these counts, so treat them as Escambray’s, from Daquinta’s records.
From Sancti Spíritus to Tokyo, and now the U-18s
Cepeda is one of the few Serie Nacional stars of his generation who reached the wider game without leaving Cuba for good. He won Olympic gold with Cuba in Athens in 2004 and played in the first two World Baseball Classics, in 2006 and 2009 (WBSC, Baseball-Reference). He played in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Yomiuri Giants. Baseball-Reference shows him with Yomiuri in 2014 and 2015: six home runs in 132 plate appearances in 2014, and no hits in 21 plate appearances in 2015.
The week off this season is a family matter. His son, Frederich Cepeda Jr., 18, is an outfielder on Cuba’s 20-man roster for the U-18 Pan American Championship in the Dominican Republic, 22–29 October. Escambray reports that Cepeda Sr. worked with the squad as a hitting coach during its camp in Santiago de Cuba and will travel with the team. The players, he said, made him promise to arrive with 400. He did, a few days before he left to join them.
Why our player page shows a bigger number
Readers who open Cepeda’s player page will see a career home-run total well above 400. That record counts every Cuban competition in our database, including the Elite League and 20 postseason campaigns. The 400 club is the standard Serie Nacional count, the one ACN, Escambray and Daquinta use, and it is the right figure for comparing him with Kindelán, Junco and Linares. The two numbers measure different things. They do not contradict each other.
What’s next
Sancti Spíritus went into 21 October at 8–6, level for second in the Eastern Zone in beisbolencuba.com’s standings. Their remaining games are on our Serie Nacional 65 schedule. We will add a dated line here when Cepeda ties Linares or breaks Díaz’s runs record.
Sources
- Agencia Cubana de Noticias, “Cepeda, el cuarto con 400 jonrones en campeonatos cubanos de béisbol”, via Escambray, 18 October 2026
- Elsa Ramos, “Cepeda: 400 por los 400”, Escambray, 19 October 2026
- Redacción, “El jonrón 400 de Frederich Cepeda no evita la derrota de Sancti Spíritus”, Directorio Cubano, 17 October 2026
- “Frederich Cepeda llega a 400 jonrones y agranda su leyenda en el béisbol cubano”, beisbolencuba.com, 20 October 2026
- Jeff Duda, WorldBaseball.com, 20 March 2025, and the WBSC and Baseball-Reference profiles
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