Yasmani Grandal and Yonder Alonso: From Havana to the Majors

By Jorge Arangure Jr. | ESPN The Magazine

 

Getty Images/ Grandal, left, and Alonso are on the verge of completing a journey from Havana to the majors.

PEORIA, Ariz. -- On certain days, when the stars align, two sets of families will meet by chance at a local grocery store in Miami or perhaps at a college baseball game.

And when they meet, they speak about a certain bond that very few families can share.

Years ago these encounters between the two families may have taken place in Cuba at a corner store and they may have involved topics that were quite different: the struggle of everyday life and the difficulty of finding food for their families. Or perhaps they would have spoken about baseball, because certainly that's a fact of life in Cuba as well.

But in Miami, those concerns have vanished. The conversations have been transformed, and tend to focus on the up-and-coming careers of the sons in each family, Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal of the San Diego Padres.

Thousands of miles away, the two sons, whose fates seem intertwined, are in Arizona with dreams of spending the next decade on a major league field together. It's the embodiment of the Cuban-American dream, and their success was only possible because of the sacrifices made by two sets of families that occasionally, and coincidentally, meet.

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During the offseason, Grandal spent a lot of time looking up trade rumors involving Alonso, his then-teammate with the Cincinnati Reds. Call it a hunch, Grandal believed their fates were connected.

"I just knew that wherever Yonder went, I was going, too," Grandal says.

It's not hard to see why, as the connections between the two players are striking: Both were born and grew up in Havana. Both were baseball brats as children on the island. Both left Cuba at a young age under remarkable circumstances and moved to Miami. Both attended the University of Miami and were then drafted in the first round by the Reds just two years apart.

"It just seems like we're a package deal wherever we go," Grandal says.

And that was the case on Dec. 17, when he and Alonso (along with Edinson Volquez and Brad Boxberger) were traded to the San Diego Padres for 24-year-old ace Mat Latos. Fate had struck again. It seemed inescapable. The two were inseparable.

Alonso, barring an injury or an unforeseen development, will be the Padres' first baseman this season. While Alonso, who Keith Law ranked as the 69th-best prospect in baseball, is not your typical home run-hitting corner infielder, scouts tout his ability to hit the ball to all fields, and Padres officials believe the 24-year-old has the prototypical swing to play in the offensive graveyard that is Petco Park. More >>