An excellent presentation in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League and in the Caribbean Series led pitcher Ricardo Pinto to once again obtain a contract with an MLB team.
The right-hander was MVP of the Grand Final with Tiburones de La Guaira, whom he guided with fundamentals from the mound to become champions, after a 37-year drought.
The next step was to command the starting pitching of the Venezuelan representatives in the Caribbean Series, which took place in Miami. With superb determination and enviable control, Pinto tied up the Dominican bats in the final and also won the Most Valuable award on the international circuit.
These credentials allow the 30-year-old pitcher to return to the Major League Baseball system, where he has not been since 2022, when he belonged to the Detroit Tigers.
Pinto signs a minor league contract with the Phillies and is invited to Spring Training, which also allows him to return to Philadelphia, an organization that gave him the opportunity to come to the United States in 2011, when at the age of 17 he signed a bonus of $15,000.
The right-hander debuted in the MLB in 2017. He then went through the system of the Chicago White Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers. In 2020 he tried his luck in Asian baseball in the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) and in the CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League).
Pinto, born in Guacara, Venezuela, began the 2023 campaign with the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos of the Mexican league, then moved to the Diablos Rojos, in which he left good feelings, after having an activity of nine appearances, five of them as starter, where he left a 3-2 record with a 3.34 ERA with the Devils in the regular season. In the playoffs he pitched in 8 games, all in relief, boasting an earned run average of 3.09.
Before becoming champion in the LVBP and Caribbean Series, he had already agreed to a new participation in 2024 with the Red Devils of Mexico, but with what was shown in the aforementioned tournaments, he decided to prefer the contract with Philadelphia.
