Sandy Gastón: The next Cuban phenom in Tampa
By Yusseff Díaz
As Florida’s two major league teams try to attract Latino fans to their respective homes, both teams have made a significant splash with young, Cuban free agents.
On Oct. 22 the Miami Marlins signed the Mesa brothers, considered by most scouts and analysts to be the top international free agents on the market this winter.
Two days later the Tampa Bay Rays signed Cuban phenom Sandy Gastón, a 16-year-old right-hander who regularly reaches the upper-90s with his fastball – a commodity every major league front office would love to have.
Tampa Bound
The young Cuban has his next goal set: making the big leagues. This, after all, is why he left Cuba.
His dream was to one day pitch in the big leagues like Cuban hurlers Orlando “El Duque” Hernández, Livan Hernández, and, more recently, Aroldis Chapman and Rasiel Iglesias.
Then, of course, there is José Fernández, whose charisma and joy as much as his electric arm endeared him to Cuban fans everywhere.
“I admired José Fernández a whole bunch, even though he was young, he was one of the leaders in Marlin’s clubhouse,” the Cuban teenager remarked.
“My next goal is definitely to reach the big leagues with the Rays. Tampa is a wonderful organization with a great training staff. I have set a goal for myself, that God willing I will reach the majors within two years.”
From Cuba to Tampa
Tampa’s connection with Cuba dates back to the late 1880s predating Miami’s Cuban community by over half a century. The tobacco industry settled cigar factories in Ybor City and eventually also led to cigars being produced in West Tampa and Tampa proper as well.
Tampa’s plans to build a new stadium in Ybor City excites the community, and the addition of a young Cuban with a big arm will add to that momentum.
The signing of Gastón might be the Rays taking a play out of Derek Jeter’s playbook of trying to reach out to the Cuban community. It also might be an attempt to stimulate the team’s lagging attendance with a high profile signing.
Just as significant, the signing gives the Rays a Cuban-born pitcher who might do for their franchise what Fernández did for the Marlins. Tampa residents were very fond of Fernández. After all, the late Cuban pitcher went to high school at the city’s Alonso High before being drafted by the Marlins and becoming an All-Star.
Young Flamethrower
Gastón was born in the Matanzas province of Cuba, on Dec. 16, 2001. Before signing with Tampa he held a showcase in Miami, where he revealed an electric repertoire of pitches and wowed representatives from various major league organizations.
The young hurler known as the “Baby Hurricane” has an array of pitches that the Rays hope to see throwing strikes in Tampa in the near future.
Baseball America ranked Gastón as their #24 international prospect, describing Gastón as having “an uncanny velocity for his age and one of the hardest throwing 16-year-olds ever.”
The right-hander has a dominant fastball, a deceptive change up, a plus slider and a split-finger.
Gastón’s experience comes from playing in the Cuban Sub 15 league in 2016 where he was third in earned run average (1.22) and struck out 77 batters, in only 66 innings.
In his final year in Cuba (2017), he struck out 47 batters in 47 innings as a member of the Under-18 tournament.
Preparing for the Future
Gastón did months of training in preparation for his showcase and for the international free agency period. Already known for his power arm, Gastón focused on how else he could impress scouts. For him, this meant focusing on being more than a hard thrower.
“I focused a lot on my control. I also focused on maintaining my velocity and augmenting it, while keeping good mechanics,” Gastón said.
The young pitcher left his native Cuba and undertook much of his training in the Dominican Republic. He discovered that the training regimen there was quite different from what he had been accustomed from his time in the Cuban baseball system.
“The training methods in the DR and in Cuba are polar opposites. When I first got to there I started doing exercises to strengthen my body to help my velocity, for the first time in my life,” he noted.
The training in the Dominican Republic worked to strengthen his body. Gastón soon realized another benefit: Increased velocity. Achieving this involved the youngster changing his training repertoire.
“When I arrived in the Dominican Republic my fastball topped out at 91 [mph]. My trainers advised me I could gain MPHs on my fastball rapidly, all I had to do was buy in to their program and give my best day to day, and they were right. We worked on strengthening my shoulders using very little free weights, tension bands were the main instrument used in these exercises. We also worked on strengthening my legs by doing sprints and agility exercises.”
The next step for Gastón is becoming a professional in the Rays organization to pursue his dream of following his heroes like Fernández to the big leagues.
Featured Image: Major League Baseball