Yuli Gurriel

Yulieski Gurriel Castillo (born June 9, 1984), commonly known as Yuli Gurriel and nicknamed "La Piña", is a Cuban professional baseball first baseman who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Astros, Miami Marlins, Kansas City Royals, and San Diego Padres, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Gurriel is a former member of Cuba's national team and an Olympic Games gold medalist in 2004.

The son of former Cuban player Lourdes Gourriel, Gurriel was regarded as the best player in Cuba in 2006. At the 2006 World Baseball Classic, MLB scouts projected that Gurriel would be a first-round draft pick were he eligible for the draft. He defected from Cuba in 2016 and made his major league debut that year.

In his first full MLB season, the 33-year old Gurriel helped lead the Astros to the 2017 World Series championship over the Los Angeles Dodgers, making him the fifth player to have won both an Olympic Games gold medal and a World Series title. He also helped lead the club to American League (AL) pennants over the New York Yankees in 2019 and 2022, as well as the Boston Red Sox in 2021. Gurriel won a second World Series title with the Astros over the Philadelphia Phillies in 2022.

In 2021, Gurriel won the AL batting title, becoming the second Cuban-born player to achieve this. At age 37, Gurriel tied Tony Gwynn (.372 in 1997), Barry Bonds (.370 in 2002), and George Brett (.329 in 1990) as the second oldest player in the divisional era (since 1969) to win a batting title; the only player who was older was Bonds, who also led the NL at age 39 in 2004. Gurriel was also the AL Gold Glove Award winner at first base in 2021, becoming the oldest player to win a Gold Glove at that position until Carlos Santana won the award at age 38 in 2024.

Gurriel had a solid season during the 2004–05 Cuban National Series (CNS), leading the league in hits and runs scored. However, he truly dominated in 2005–06, leading the series in runs batted in (RBI), runs, and triples. His 27 home runs, which also led the league, were one short of the record of 28. Gurriel's batting average was .327, and his slugging percentage was .676. He played his Cuban career with Sancti Spíritus and Industriales of the Cuban National Series.

On May 11, 2014, Gurriel signed a one-year contract with the Yokohama DeNA BayStars. He joined the team at midseason, and batted .305 with 11 home runs and 30 RBIs in 62 games.

In February 2016, Gurriel and his then-22-year-old brother, Lourdes Jr., defected after competing in the Caribbean Series in the Dominican Republic and relocated to Haiti to establish residency. In Haiti in June 2016, Gurriel met future Houston Astros teammate Yordan Alvarez, who is also Cuban. In June, Major League Baseball declared Gurriel eligible to be signed by a major league team as a free agent.

Nearly 10 years prior, ESPN.com had erroneously reported that Gurriel and another Cuban national player, Eduardo Paret, had defected from Cuba and into Colombia. Gurriel refuted this claim on August 1, 2006, stating that he returned to his home in Cuba immediately after the tournament in which the Cuban national team had been playing.