Cum Posey, played for, managed, and owned the Homestead Grays in the Negro National League.
Paul Beeston has been president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays from 1989-1997 and from 2010-2016, at which time he became president emeritus.
Infielder Juan Gabriel Castro played for the Twins in 2005 and the first part of 2006. Born and raised in Los Mochis, Mexico, Castro signed with the Dodgers as a free agent in 1991. He had decent batting averages in the minors, but did not walk very much nor did he show much power. He gained a reputation as a fine fielder, however, and made his major league debut as a September call-up in 1995. He spent the next two years going back and forth between Albuquerque and Los Angeles, putting up good numbers in the minors but bad numbers in the majors, where he was used as a utility player. He got his first full season in the majors in 1998, again as a utility player, and hit only .195 with an OPS of .499. He was back in AAA for almost all of 1999 and then was traded to Cincinnati. He started 2000 in AAA but was back in the majors in late April and remained with the Reds through 2004, again as a utility infielder. He continued to not hit very well– his best year was 2003, when he hit .253 with nine homers for an OPS of .678. Castro became a free agent after the 2004 campaign and signed with Minnesota. As a Twin, he basically was what he was–a weak hitter with a reputation as a good fielder. He hit .248/.271/.357 in 428 at-bats. He stayed with Minnesota until mid-June of 2006, when he was traded to Cincinnati for Brandon Roberts. He had a good rest-of-2006 for the Reds, but did little in 2007 and was released in early May of 2008. He signed with the Rockies, played in AAA there for two and a half months, then was traded to Baltimore. He was with the Dodgers in 2009, moved on to Philadelphia for 2010, was released in mid-July, and signed with the Dodgers again. He was still with the Dodgers in 2011, but spent most of the season in the minors and retired on July 10. Upon his retirement, Juan Castro was named a special assistant for player personnel for the Dodgers. He was the Dodgers' Quality Assurance Coach from 2016-2017. He was the director of operations for the Tijuana Toros in the Mexican League in 2017, and was manager of the Aguilas de Mexicali in the Mexican Pacific League in 2018. He was named manager of Team Mexico in the WSBC Premier12 tournament in 2019. He became the Philadelphia Phillies' infield coach from 2020-2021. He managed Diablos in the Mexican League in 2022, but was let go fifteen games into the 2023 season. No information about what he has done since then was readily available.
First baseman/designated hitter Kendrys Morales was with the Twins for about six weeks in 2014. He was born in Fomento, Cuba. He played in Cuba through 2003, then defected, established residency in the Dominican Republic, and was signed by the Angels in December of 2004. His name was incorrectly listed as "Kendry", a mistake he lived with until prior to the 2011 season. He started 2005 in Class A and quickly proved he was too good to be there, being promoted to AA after twenty-two games. He started 2006 in AAA but spent half the season in the majors, making his debut in late May. He went back and forth between AAA and the majors through the 2008 season before coming up to stay in 2009. He had a fine season, finishing fifth in MVP voting, and was having another solid year in 2010 when he broke his leg stepping on home plate following a walkoff grand slam on May 29. He missed the rest of that season and all of 2011. He came back in 2012 and was again a good player, although perhaps not quite as good as he had been before his injury. After the season he was traded to Seattle for Jason Vargas. He spent 2013 with the Mariners and again put up solid numbers. He became a free agent after the season and went unsigned until early June, when he signed with Minnesota. He hit poorly and was traded back to Seattle in late July for Stephen Pryor. He was a free agent after the season and it looked like he might be done, but he signed with Kansas City and started hitting again. It's unclear what happened to him in 2014, but whatever it was it obviously went away, as he had two solid seasons for the Royals. A free agent after the 2016 campaign, he signed with Toronto and did okay from 2017-2018, although not as well as he had done in Kansas City. He was traded to Oakland just before the 2019 season, then was traded to the Yankees in mid-May. He did not hit for either team and was released by the Yankees in early July. He announced his retirement in February of 2020. As a Twin, he hit .234/.259/.325 in 154 at-bats. For his career, he hit .265/.327/.453. At last report, Kendrys Morales was raising animals and spending time with his family in Davie, Florida.
Left-hander Adalberto Mejia pitched in the Twins' organization since 2016. He was born in Donao, Dominican Republic and signed with the Giants as a free agent in 2011. He moved steadily up the Giants system, going to Class A in 2012, high-A in 2013, and AA in 2014. He had a rough year in 2014 but was off to an excellent start there in 2015 when his season was cut short, first by injury and then by a suspension for use of a banned stimulant. He did very well in eleven AA starts in 2016 and did okay in seven AAA starts when he was traded to Minnesota for Eduardo Nunez. He pitched well in four starts in Rochester and made one appearance with the Twins. He started the 2017 season in the Twins' rotation, was sent back to Rochester for a month after three starts, and came back to the Twins in late May. He was not particularly good, but he was not terrible, either. He spent most of 2018 in Rochester but made sporadic appearances with the Twins and did well in the limited chances he got. He was with the Twins for the first month of the 2019 season and had terrible numbers, then missed time due to injury. The Twins waived him in July. He was claimed by the Angels, waived again ten days later, claimed by St. Louis, was waived again about ten days after that, and was claimed by the Angels again. He signed with the White Sox for 2020 but was released in August. He signed with the Fubon Guardians in Taiwan for 2021 but appeared in just four games. He then played in two games in winter ball in the Dominican League. That brought his playing career to an end. As a Twin he was 6-0, 4.63, 1.55 WHIP in 138 innings. He appeared in 40 games, starting 25 of them. He turns twenty-nine today. Our guess is that his playing career is over, and we wish him well in the next phase of his life.
Right-handed reliever Ronny Henriquez appeared in three games for the Twins in 2022. He was born in Bonao, Dominican Republic, and signed with Texas in 2017. He did quite well in rookie ball in 2018, but struggled the next year when promoted to Class A. Following the COVID year of 2020 he pitched five games of high-A and then went to AA, where he again struggled. The Rangers traded him to Minnesota in March of 2022 with Isiah Kiner-Falefa for Mitch Garver. Henriquez had a poor year in AAA in 2022, despite which he got a September call up and did well in three appearances, going 0-1, 2.31, 0.94 WHIP with 9 strikeouts in 11.2 innings. He was doing very badly in AAA in 2023 and was dropped all the way to Class A, where he has still not pitched well in two appearances. He strikes out a lot of guys (10.5 per nine in the minors) and didn't walk a lot until this year, when he's walked eight per nine innings. That leads one to assume that either he's hiding an injury or his mechanics are all messed up. He turns twenty-three today, so he still has time to figure it out. We hope he will.
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