LOS ANGELES – In an emotionally charged opening day at the highest level of professional baseball, catcher Eliézer Alfonzo made his long-awaited Major League Baseball debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, a milestone clouded by uncertainty over his stepmother and sister, who remain missing following the catastrophic earthquakes that struck his native Venezuela. The 26-year-old prospect took the ninth spot in the Dodgers’ starting lineup, handling catching duties for starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan during the team’s home interleague clash against the San Diego Padres. Alfonzo’s 16-year-old sister Eliana and stepmother Patricia have been unaccounted for since a series of powerful quakes devastated coastal Venezuela on June 24. Multiple Latin American media outlets published reports Sunday claiming that the pair’s bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the La Guaira hotel where they were staying when the disaster struck. As of first pitch, the Los Angeles Dodgers organization confirmed that no official verification of these reports has been received, leaving Alfonzo in limbo as he stepped onto the major league diamond for the first time. Speaking roughly two hours before game time at Dodger Stadium, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shared that he had not yet spoken directly with Alfonzo about the developing situation, and struggled to put the catcher’s ordeal into words. “Outside of my heart goes out to him and his entire family, I don’t really know what to say about it,” Roberts told reporters. “He is with the team today, and he’s going to play, but obviously calling this a heavy heart doesn’t even begin to cover it. I don’t want to go too deep into this, because I’ll get emotional. I know it’s unbelievably tough for him right now.” Alfonzo’s path to the majors has been nearly a decade in the making. After logging 581 appearances across nine seasons of minor league play, the Dodgers called him up to the active roster Saturday, marking his first ever opportunity to compete at baseball’s top tier. He spent the majority of his professional career in the Detroit Tigers’ farm system, climbing as high as the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Toledo last year. Last November, Alfonzo signed a minor league free agent contract with the Dodgers, and turned in an impressive performance at Triple-A Oklahoma City to earn his call-up, posting a .313 batting average with 17 runs batted in through his play this season. The Dodgers’ roster move came amid a growing need behind the plate: veteran starting catcher Will Smith has been out of commission for nearly a month with a nagging neck injury. Dalton Rushing has stepped in as the team’s primary starter at catcher, with veteran Chuckie Robinson serving as his backup, but the Dodgers elected to hand Alfonzo a shot in the starting lineup this weekend. Alfonzo is following a family legacy of professional catching: his father, Eliézer Alfonzo Sr., appeared across parts of six MLB seasons between 2006 and 2011, suiting up as a catcher for four different major league clubs, and even spent one season in the Dodgers’ minor league system early in the former backstop’s career.
Dodgers’ Eliézer Alfonzo makes MLB debut with sister, stepmother still missing in Venezuela quakes
