Every minor-league baseball player experiences adversity at some point in their career as they wait in the wings for an opportunity to play in the majors.
It could be as small as a poor outing at the plate or on the mound, or as significant as spending more than half a decade riding buses across the country while clinging onto a dream.
But for some players, the mere act of traveling to the United States and finding a way to ingrain themselves into its professional baseball landscape is one that has severe consequences. And that's where the story of St. Louis Cardinals infielder Cesar Prieto comes into play.
Prieto, who defected from Cuba, is set for his first big-league opportunity with the Cardinals
In May 2021, Prieto was a member of the Cuban national baseball team that travelled from the Caribbean island to Florida to participate in a qualifying tournament for the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Upon his arrival to America, Prieto followed in the footsteps of dozens of Cuban baseball players before him and decided to defect from the country.
Prieto's method of defecting from Cuba was a risky one. According to MLB.com's John Denton, Prieto sprinted from a bus in West Palm Beach to a waiting van that raced off before anyone could trace where he had gone.
The Federación Cubana de Beísbol, the sport's governing body in Cuba, confirmed that Prieto had defected on the night of May 26.
Prieto was known as one of the top talents in Cuba at the time of his defection, but it wouldn't be until the following year that Prieto signed an international free-agent contract with a big-league club. He officially inked a deal with the Baltimore Orioles, with a signing bonus of $650,000, on Jan. 16.
He would go on to spend the next four years of his career in the minor leagues. By the time Prieto was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in a mid-season deal involving Jack Flaherty in 2023, he had already been playing for the Norfolk Tides, the Orioles' Triple-A affiliate. He has remained an everyday player for the Triple-A Memphis Redbirds ever since.
And now, he is primed for his first big-league call-up.
BeisbolFR.com's Francys Romero first reported on Thursday night that the Cardinals planned to promote Prieto ahead of the team's three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds. This year alone, Prieto has been hitting .295 with nine home runs and 62 RBIs in 107 MiLB games; he is a career .293 hitter with 44 round-trippers over the course of his minor-league career.
The Cardinals have yet to formally announce his promotion — they will need to both select his contract and make a corresponding move to add him to their 40-man roster. But when that decision is made, it will be a credit to Prieto's perseverance amid a tense transatlantic political situation.