With his father recently imprisoned for life because of ties with a Venezuelan cartel, Giovanny Zimolo‘s phone rang exactly four months and two days ago with new that would take him even further from his dad.

“Tu vas a Japon,” were the words the hard-hitting catcher heard that briefly left him empty inside.

Zimolo’s agent Enrique Ramirez was calling to let his prized client know that he had just been traded across the Pacific Ocean to the Niihama-Shi Ghosts of the LRS. The news that took Zimolo some 9,000 miles away from the “paradise” prison where he could easily visit his dad any time he wanted came as quite a shock.

“I saw my dad and told him I was traded overseas,” Zimolo said about a recent visit to his father in Venezeuela’s San Antonio Prison. “He said to just forget about him and go do my job. He’s a tough guy, but now that I’m in Japan, it’s way too far to see him anytime soon. It really sucks.”

Zimolo must be channeling his frustration on the baseball with a dominating performance in spring training that has begun turning heads across the LRS.

The 23-year old Venezuelan native was acquired this past offseason in a blockbuster deal that saw Niihama-shi fan favorite RF Ryozo Takeuchi leave town for Zimolo, SP Roger Keller, and LF Brandon Meade.

Expected to begin the 2019 season at AA Ikari before a late-spring promotion to AAA Namuko, Zimolo turned that plan on its head. Given three starts the opening week of spring training to see what he could do, Zimolo went 5-for-10 with a double, a home run, and 5 RBI. He never slowed down.

Zimolo finished spring training leading the LRS in Slugging (.755), OPS (1.170), RC/27 (14.88), and RBI’s (18). He fashioned three separate 4-RBI games and finished second in batting average (.429) behind only 4-time All-Star and 2018 Saiyu-shu-senshu winner Yosuke Imai of Edo.

Of the three players the Ghosts acquired from Charleston, Zimolo was the only one who wasn’t expected to contribute in the big leagues this season. But the trade’s dividends appear to be paying off early. With LF Jason Guillen beginning the year on the disabled list, Zimolo is immediately being inserted into the number three slot of the Ghosts’ lineup.

The 6-foot-3, 230 pound Zimolo spent the bulk of the past two seasons in single A ball, where he tore up opposing pitchers for a .344 average with 41 homers and 178 RBI in 192 games. But that talent level was a far cry from that which he ate up this spring.

Zimolo’s performance pushes 7-year veteran catcher Azumamaro Fujita down to AAA Namuko and unseats, for now anyway, all-star Eisuke ‘Big House’ Koizumi in the Ghosts’ starting lineup. OSA recently named Zimolo the 13th best prospect in the LRS.