The Caribbean Series | MLB
The 2025-2026 Winter Leagues were played from November through January in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. Each country had playoffs to determine the championship for their league and those teams advanced to contend for the Caribbean Series.
Venezuela was to play host to the series but it was moved to Mexico due to concerns regarding political issues and player safety. As a result, Venezuela removed their team from the series and the host country had two teams in the tournament.
The Teams
Leones del Escogido, the Dominican champions, had multiple former Padres playing for the league championship. Catcher Martin Maldonado, outfielder Franchy Cordero, and infielder Eguy Rosario all played during their season. Cordero were the only players of the three in the series. RHP Francis Pena, a top prospect for the Padres and a player invited to major league camp, closed the championship game for Escogido. Albert Pujols was their manager.
Canorejeros de Santurce, the Puerto Rican representative, won their league by three games. They had some offensive struggles through the series and finished in third after being eliminated in the semi-finals.
Federales de Chiriqui, the Panama representative, featured former Padre Christian Bethancourt as their catcher. They went 0-4 through the tournament and finished last.
Mexico had two teams in the tournament, with Charros de Jalisco being the winners of the league and Tomateros de Culiacan coming in second and named as the replacement for Venezuela. Charros was Mexico Red and Tomateros was Mexico Green. Padres prospect Tirso Ornelas and his older brother, Julian, both played for Charros but Tirso Ornelas was not with the team for the championship or the series. His brother Julian, also an outfielder, was their No. 2 hitter and finished with a .308 average and .857 OPS.
Benji Gil, former World Series winning major leaguer, is the manager for Mexico Red and coached his own son Mateo Gil for the tournament. He will also be managing the Mexico WBC team next month.
The Mexico Green team featured former Padre Allan Cordoba in center field and newly signed Padre minor league player Luis Verdugo as their shortstop and sometime DH. Verdugo is the older brother of Padres prospect Rosman Verdugo, 20, who is an infielder in the system and played for Fort Wayne last season. Verdugo finished with a .381/.409/.476 line. Catcher Ali Solis played for the Padres in 2012 and is still catching for Mexico.
The Series
The Caribbean Series is a round-robin tournament with the teams with the best records advancing and featured the Dominican, Puerto Rican and both Mexico teams in the semi-finals on Friday. The Escogido team went in as the favorites, as defending champions and with multiple MLB prospects playing on the team. They started 3-0 and then lost two in a row, including the semifinal game against Mexico Green. The Mexico Red team defeated Puerto Rico in the other semifinal.
As a result, the two Mexico teams played in the championship game that went more than four hours and 10 innings before Mexico Red won on two wild pitches in the bottom of the 10th inning. The tournament was played in Jalisco, Mexico at over 5,000 feet of altitude so the whole series featured lots of hits and lots of runs.
The final ended 12-11 and featured a lot of tired pitchers struggling to land strikes. Former Padre Odrisamer Despaigne pitched for Mexico Green but also had difficulty getting strikes despite having done very well for six innings in his start four days earlier. He only got through 0.2 innings and allowed four earned runs.
During his time with Charros de Jalisco, Tirso Ornelas hit .236/.300/.292 in 21 games and 80 appearances with seven RBI. His inability to hit for power is what has primarily sidelined his attempt to break into the Padres 26-man roster and he had no home runs and four doubles for Mexico.
Many of these players will also be playing in the WBC and then there will be a Summer League that most of the players also participate in. It isn’t uncommon for many of these players to play almost year-round.
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