Abreu keeps Miñoso’s advice

Not many years ago, José Abreu was demolishing international pitching for the Cuban national team while a ton of major league scouts followed him around the world.

Signed by the Chicago White Sox as an amateur free agent October 29, 2013, and now deep into his sixth season, he’s doing the same thing against major league competition.

A lot of water has cherished the Lake Michigan shoreline since the powerful right-handed hitter became a professional at the top of baseball’s mecca, but he’ll never forget a great piece of advice he received from a famous countryman, the legendary Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso.

“Since I’ve been in this country, I’ve always had the opportunity to be surrounded by good people,” Abreu said. “I will never forget the day I met Minnie.

“As part of his valuable guidance, Miñoso gave me three keys for me to have success at this level -discipline, punctuality and hard work. ‘Those will bring you good results in the majors,’ he said to me. And I’ve always followed his advice every single day.”

A lifetime .289 hitter, Miñoso passed away in 2015, just when Abreu was getting ready in spring training for his second season with the White Sox. The former outfielder and corner infielder played in the majors from 1949 to 1964, and later returned in 1976 and 1980 for short stints at 50 and 54 years-old, respectively. He was still hitting base hits at other baseball levels until he was almost 80 years old. Many experts believe he should be in Baseball’s Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Abreu made his major league debut in 2014, hitting for a .317 average with 36 home runs and 107 runs batted in. He was the American League Rookie of the Year that year and he had 100-plus RBI in each one of his first four seasons. He was slowed down to 78 runs produced in only 499 at bats due to injuries in 2018, but he’s once more on his way in 2019 to more than 30 home runs for the fourth time, with more than 100 RBI for the fifth time in his career.

Of course, the White Sox have always been very happy to keep the three time All-Star in the middle of their order, although this year it had been strongly rumored in the national media that they may ship the now 32-year old slugger to a contending team in order to add even more solid prospects to their already rich in talent farm system, and then bring the first baseman back later to the Windy City, the same way the New York Yankees did with Aroldis Chapman, after the famous Cuban closer won a World Series ring with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

The White Sox kept their leader, though.

“I don’t have any thoughts on rumors, I’ll be honest, I’m not a rumor guy,” said Rick Rentería, the White Sox third-year manager. “I don’t read a whole lot of things about that. I just personally handle and control the things that I can. Our players are here. That’s our team out there and I’ll continue to manage them as long as they’re here.”

For Rentería, having a player like Abreu has been a blessing since he took the reins of the team in 2017.

“I love him, everybody knows that. I make no bones about it,” Rentería said. “He brings certainly a professionalism to his game. Obviously, his numbers speak for themselves, in terms of his contributions here. He’s very valuable for us on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively.

“What he brings to the table in terms of the communication he has with his teammates is invaluable. He’s one of those guys who has been here through all the process of our youngsters coming up. They have plenty of conversations [with Abreu] as the game goes on, and in between innings. He’s a valuable piece for us. Obviously he’s having a nice year, and we hope he continues to help us win some ball games. Personally, I hope he remains here for a long time.”

The White Sox first baseman loves to help the younger players. They have a lot of potential future stars such as Cuban third baseman Yoán Moncada, Dominican outfielder Eloy Jiménez and right-handed pitcher Lucas Giolito, who at 25 is already among the American League elite starters.

“Right now, there’s a lot of young talent among most of the major league teams,” Abreu said.  “For us, the ones with a little more experience, it is our duty to give them our support and guide them towards the right road, the same as others did for us. I do as much as I can. At the end of the day, I ask myself if I’ve done enough to help them.”

In the last two decades, only a handful of major league stars have been able to play their whole career with a single team. Abreu would love to add his name to that list.

“I always try to follow the great core beliefs my parents brought me up with, and one of those is that one of the greatest virtues of a human being is to be grateful, and I’m very grateful to the White Sox institution,” Abreu said. “I’ll love to end my career as a White Sox.

“I’m always thankful to God and for having the huge support of my family, which is a great thing because it gives me the opportunity to play with peace of mind and to be able to do my job every day.”

Featured Image: David Banks / Getty Images Sport