Dec 20, 2019

Ernesto de la Torriente, La Bola Rápida

Baggage, Herb Martin doesn’t have much and that’s the crux of his problem. Herb is a starting pitcher in the LRS. The LRS is undergoing a lot of change, just like Herb’s return address. The Tacoma native has been on the move of late, more than he’d care to admit.

Herb’s PEBA baseball career began playing for USCBA affiliate club, Louisville in 2010.  He was good in Lousville, good enough for the Crystal Lake Sandgnats to draft him with the 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft. They inked him to a minor league contract with a $1,350,000 signing bonus. It looked like there would be plenty of money for baggage destined to be carried to the bigs.

Fortune had other plans, Herb was destined to be a traveling man. In 2017 he was dealt to Gloucester. Injuries held him back. In 2019 he got traded again this time to the LRS in Hyaakujuu. Before he could even unpack he was off again, this time to Edo who were already packing up to leave the LRS and join PEBA as the expansion club Havana Leones.

Unpacking the bags was unnecessary as it turned out. His baggage was lost on his last trip from Hyaakujuu. Herb’s not to sure the club hasn’t sold it as baseball memorabilia. There was a lot of suspicious activity around that clubhouse.

After he was acquired by Edo in the 2019 Winter Meetings I sat down with him to get his thoughts. “I’m pretty excited about being with the club. Traveling is getting old. I’ve seen the world now. I’m definitely not buying a house in Kyoto though (laughs). Really looking forward to re-launching with the new franchise in Havana.”

“What’s on your Christmas list this year?”

“Some new luggage.” His new roommate opined. Herb is splitting his Kyoto apartment with Edo’s other winter pickup, Cuban native and middle reliever Orlanda Zavala.

Zavala represents two things to his new club. The Evas and Battousai have been involved in some remarkable offseason trades and he’ll be the last hot stove transaction between them when Edo retires the October Orange and shuffle off to Havana in 2020. He’s also the face of the future and was no doubt acquired in an effort to woo future fans in Cuba.

The club confirmed as much but add that they also liked Zavala’s leadership and the expanded gaijin eligibility allows them to add him to a bullpen that needed a lot of help. Zavala was acquired from the Evas for Edo’s 2020 5^th round pick. Herb Martin, they say, was the guy they were targeting in the recent LRS expansion draft but had to go with C Yosuke Imai when his name popped on the list. They knew it would likely cost them Martin but really had no choice, even in spite of their glaring weaknesses in the rotation.

In the end it all worked out. Acquiring Imai freed up catching prospect C Hirotsugu Suzuki who was struggling at their AAA club. CF Shojiro Kotara completed the package to Kawaguchi and the deal was done. It also allows the two rising Japanese prospects to continue to play ball in Japan.

Edo says they would have liked to have gotten more native Cubans on board but frankly they were a bit short on talent to trade for the top Cubanos. Now they will begin to focus on building up the minor league organizations on the island in the Caribbean.