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The Cuban baseball player Yasiel Puig had a dream debut in the Canadian Baseball League, hitting two home runs and driving in three runs on Opening Day of the 2026 season, leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to an 8-6 victory over the Kitchener Panthers.
According to Pelota Cubana, the player from Cienfuegos, 35 years old, made a perfect debut in Canada by going 2-for-2 with two home runs, three runs scored, and two walks, finishing the day with a perfect batting average of 1.000.
Puig played as the third batter and right fielder at Christie Pits Stadium in Toronto, demonstrating that at 35 years old he still possesses the power and discipline at the plate that made him shine in Major League Baseball.
The organization had signed him in April 2026 in what the Maple Leafs described as "the largest contract in the team's history," making him the star player of the league in its inaugural season as a fully professional circuit.
The Canadian Baseball League will celebrate its 108th season in 2026, after transitioning from a semi-professional circuit to a fully professional one in November 2025.
In the same game on Opening Day, other Cuban players also shined: Yordan Manduley went 1 for 4 with a double and two walks; Yadián Martínez earned the win as a pitcher after five innings of work; and Yosvani Peñalver hit 3 for 4 with a double and a stolen base.
Puig had already played preseason games with the Maple Leafs during the weekend of May 4, prior to his official debut.
Outside the field, the former player of the Los Angeles Dodgers is going through a delicate legal process in the United States.
On February 6th, a federal jury in Los Angeles found him guilty of obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal investigators, in the context of an investigation into an illegal gambling ring.
According to the prosecutor's office, Puig made approximately 899 bets in 2019 on American football, basketball, and tennis, accumulating losses of over 1.5 million dollars and a documented debt of $282,900.
Puig denied before federal investigators that he participated in those bets, and he also denied it during his U.S. naturalization process in 2019.
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 26 in Los Angeles, where he faces a maximum theoretical penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison, making his time in Canada a chapter of uncertain future.
In MLB, he accumulated a .277 batting average, 132 home runs, and 415 runs batted in over seven seasons from 2013 to 2019, before playing in leagues in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, South Korea, and Venezuela, where he recorded his best recent performance: a .418 average with 10 home runs in just 25 games with the Tiburones de La Guaira in the 2023-24 season.
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