A lot has been written about Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and his season in the desert already, so I am not going to write a lot about the left fielder who will be with us for, at least, the next two seasons.
The younger brother of former Astros’ world series champions Yuli Gurriel defected with his brother in 2016 from Cuba after playing a tournament in the Dominican Republic. As such, he was declared a free agent by the MLB. Lourdes Gurriel signed a 7-year $22MM contract in 2016 with the Blue Jays and because of the defection and free agency he was never in for a qualifying offer at the end of the 2023 season, something we obviously didn’t always quite understand.