Yangervis Solarte enjoyed a very good season for the Padres in 2016 despite dealing with unimaginable tragedy off the field. Yuliette Solarte, Yangervis’ wife, was diagnosed with liver cancer in late 2015 and passed away last September at age 31. As the infielder tells Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Solarte was prepared to skip last year’s Spring Training to spend time with his wife and their three daughters, but Yuliette urged him to focus on baseball in order to continue providing for their family’s future. Yuliette saw her husband secure his first life-changing payday last spring in the form of a $3.15MM brand contract with Fantex, and Solarte gained even more financial security by signing a two-year extension with the Padres this past January. Sanders’ touching piece is well worth a full read, chronicling the couple’s life together, Solarte’s journey to the big leagues and Yuliette’s battle after her heartbreaking diagnosis.
Here’s more from around the NL West…
- Santiago Casilla is happy to be back in the Athletics organization after not being offered a contract by the Giants this last winter, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. A reunion between Casilla and the Giants never seemed likely given how Casilla became a virtual afterthought for the team after he was removed from the closer’s job in September, and the two sides didn’t do much in the way of offseason negotiating.
- Corey Seager has missed the Dodgers’ last two games and will miss Monday’s game as well due to a minor back injury suffered while turning a double play on Friday. Both Seager and manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times) that the injury isn’t considered serious, and the team isn’t even sending Seager in for tests. Seager has seen little action on the field during Spring Training as he was previously sidelined with a shin injury, though it sounds like the Dodgers are simply playing it safe with their young star.
- Lefty Yuhei Nakaushiro was one of the first cuts from the Diamondbacks’ spring camp but manager Torey Lovullo told reporters (including MLB.com’s Chris Gabel) that the Japanese southpaw isn’t far off from his big league debut. “Instead of putting pressure on himself [in big league camp] and every third day getting a look, we felt like he could go down to player development. The last thing we said to him is that he’s very close,” Lovullo said. “We will see him at some point during the year. We know that. We feel very comfortable with that.” The 27-year-old signed a minor league deal with Arizona last winter and posted very strong numbers in his first taste of North American baseball; Nakaushiro rose from rookie ball to Triple-A, posting a combined 1.23 ERA, 12.3 K/9 and 3.08 K/BB rate over 29 1/3 combined innings.
My heart still breaks for Solarte. That was such an unimaginable tragedy. But, padres have always seemed to do right with things like these. No doubt Solartes extension in part was to help him financially while locking up a good player.
Ill always be a padres fan simply because of this gesture. ftw.usatoday.com/2015/04/san-diego-padres-matt-lac…
Cancer isn’t “unimaginable”. It happens to loads of people every year who aren’t married to baseball players.
It’s not a competition. Jeez, have some compassion and leave the snark for something deserving snark.
I don’t really see it as snark, since I can see where he’s coming from. Was it unfortunate? Yes? Was it “unimaginable”? I don’t know about that. Then again, we do live in a time where people constantly use words like “literally” and phrases like “best/worst _____ ever” very much out of context.
It was snark. That’s all that ever comes out that douche’s posts in this site. Maybe it’s not unimaginable when it happens to someone else, but different when it happens personally
Don’t forget the overused, now-meaningless “unbelievable”.
Best wishes to Solarte.
“Yuliette Solarte, Yangervis’ wife, was diagnosed with liver cancer in late 2015 and passed away last September at age 31.”
Essentially he had a year left with her while spending time away from her playing baseball to provide for the family, they do play away games if you were unaware of how baseball schedules work.
So yes, an unimaginable tragedy as
a. she was relatively young and
b. he didn’t get to spend as much time as he wished he could due to playing 100+ games in 2016.
Players literally spend up to 2 weeks at a time playing away games…..i am sure he would have liked to spend more time with his wife who probably didn’t travel.
So yes unimaginable because he lost her young and had to travel because he plays baseball so it cut into him being able to be with his wife.
But thanks for stopping by and telling us cancer sucks, we are fully aware of this. Apparently you aren’t fully aware of the tole it takes on people around those with cancer.
Jesus, why don’t you just crap on her grave? It’s unimaginable when it happens to your family. Nobody hears the news and says “I was thinking this would happen just the other day.” Maybe it’s time to look inside your own heart and ask yourself “why am I like this, and how do I change?”
ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh petrie
Casilla is garbage
Besides the blown saves he actually had a great season…to be fair closing was his job so he was bad for his team; but a sneaky good signing by the A’s.
I don’t see it as a sneaky good signing for the money Casilla received and being multi-year. Reds got Drew Storen for about 2.5….Rockies snagged Greg Holland for about the same money in total. Casilla might be alright with the A’s, but no one else was paying him that.
Here’s to another good season Solarte.