A few weeks ago, very good news came from France related to a young Cuban baseball player. This is Andy Paz, catcher and first baseman who had a great 2021, which is why the French Federation of Baseball and Softball (FFBS) selected him as the best male baseball player last year in the Federal Merits awards that are presented annually.
The Havanan, who the previous year played for the Sénart Templarios —with whom he had already been in 2013 and 2015— was a regular in 27 Division 1 games, the highest level of baseball in that country.
In that campaign, he was very good offensively and was the leader in hits (43), total bases (54) and runs scored (26), as well as second in RBIs (23), doubles (5) and triples (3) and third in slugging (.500).
His performance was fundamental in the subtitle for the Templarios, who lost in five games against Rouen Baseball 76. Within the season they also played the Confederation Cup, a continental match in which the Czech Draci Brno dominated, although Sénart’s men managed to place themselves in the ranked number two, thanks to a 4-1 record.
Andy, who started throwing balls in San Miguel del Padrón, left Cuba in 2007, when he was still 14 years old. Until then he had played a lot and had the basic tools to be able to dedicate himself to this sport in the future.
Once he crossed the Atlantic, in the nation of the Gauls he was received by his father and two brothers, and later he managed to join his mother there. However, along with this excellent news on a personal level, the development of the man from the capital as an athlete allowed him to rise quickly and open several doors for the future.
He was captured by the Stade Toulousain Baseball in the very year of his arrival in Europe and the following year he was included in the list of high-level athletes in French baseball. Shortly after, in 2008 himself, he was voted the best catcher in the MLB Europe inter-academic tournament with the Pôle France team.
In 2009 he made his debut with the French youth team in the continental tournament held in Germany, where he and his teammates placed third, and in 2010 he participated in the U-18 World Cup in Canada.
His outstanding performances in those lower category events caught the attention of Tom Gillespie, scout of the Oakland Athletics. As a result of that contact, in January 2011 the Californian franchise offered him a contract to go play in the United States, a fact that made Andy the third player trained in France to sign with a Major League club —after Joris Bert and Frédéric Hanvi—, in addition to being the first European amateur player to be drafted by the Athletics.
With that organization he could only advance to AA before being released in 2017. After seven years in the Minors, he compiled a .256/.339/.323 line, with 40 extra-base hits (31 doubles, 4 triples and five home runs), in addition to 82 towed.
In the United States he also saw action in independent leagues such as the American Association (2018) and Can-Am (2019), while in Italy he was champion with the Fortitudo Bologna in the A1 Series and also had experience with the Tigres de Chinandega of the main circuit. Nicaraguan.
At the national team level, we tell you that in 2012 one of the main milestones in his career occurred, after being crowned in the U-21 European Championship, which meant the first continental trophy for French baseball at any level.
After this, Andy was summoned by the senior team to face the qualifier for the 2013 World Classic, thanks to which he became part of a list of Cubans who have worn that shirt, made up of Ernesto Martínez, Leonel Céspedes and Ernesto Martínez. Jr. He repeated in the contest prior to the 2017 appointment.
His last appearance with the team of his host country occurred in the 2021 continental tournament, held in September in Italy. There he was, by far, the best hitter of the cast, going 8-for-22 (average .364), with two doubles, a home run, five walks and the same number of RBIs. Despite this, the squad anchored in penultimate position (they were only ahead of Slovakia, who lost all six games), after a balance of 2-4, similar to that achieved by Sweden, Ukraine and Greece.
Despite Paz’s season in 2021, he is not playing the current version of Division 1, which began on April 10 and has the presence of Cuban Hasely Medina (Nice) and Leonel Céspedes (Toulouse).
