Lázaro Blanco Matos (born February 23, 1986) is a Cuban

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who is a free agent. He previously played for the

Alazanes de Granma Alazanes de Granma is a baseball team in the Cuban National Series, based in the eastern province of Granma. Until the 2016-2017 season, the Alazanes were a frequent contender, but had never advanced to a National Series final. However, in 2017 ...

of the Cuban National Series. Blanco played for the

Cuba national baseball team The Cuba national baseball team (Spanish: ''Selección de béisbol de Cuba'') represents Cuba at regional and international levels. The team is made up from the most professional players from the Cuban national baseball system. Cuba has been des ...

at the

2015 Pan American Games Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music *Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

and

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to March 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts ...

Career

Blanco signed with the

Québec Capitales The Québec Capitales ( French: ''Les Capitales de Québec'') are a professional baseball team based in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The Capitales have been members of the Frontier League since the 2020 season after a merger between the Can-Am Le ...

of the

Can-Am League The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional, independent baseball league with teams in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada, founded in 2005 as a reorganization of ...

on May 20, 2017. He re-signed with the club for the 2018 season, and was later waived prior to the 2019 season. Blanco signed with the Saraperos de Saltillo of the Mexican League for the 2020 season. Blanco did not play in a game in 2020 due to the cancellation of the Mexican League season because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In 2021, Blanco pitched for the

at the 2020 Summer Olympics Americas Qualifier in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Following the event, he was set to fly to Mexico to join the Saraperos de Saltillo, but missed his flight and announced that he would defect to the United States.

References

External links

1986 births Living people Baseball pitchers Alazanes de Granma players Cocodrilos de Matanzas players 2017 World Baseball Classic players Baseball players at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games bronze medalists for Cuba Baseball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Québec Capitales players Pan American Games medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2015 Pan American Games Defecting Cuban baseball players Defectors to the United States People from Yara, Cuba {{Cuba-baseball-pitcher-stub