First baseman with the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball Yulieski Gourriel Castillo, also known as Yuli Gurriel, is of Cuban descent (MLB).
He had previously played for Sancti Spiritus in the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yokohama DeNA BayStars and the Cuban National Series (CNS) (NPB).
Gurriel won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games and was a previous member of Cuba’s national squad. He has always been a capable infielder, having made major league appearances at shortstop, second base, and third base.
Yulieski, the son of former Cuban player Lourdes Gurriel, was rated as Cuba’s top athlete in 2006.
MLB scouts predicted Gurriel would be a first-round choice if he were to declare for the draft at the 2006 World Baseball Classic. He left Cuba in 2016, the same year he made his big league debut.
Gurriel became the fifth player to have won both an Olympic Games gold medal and a World Series championship in his first complete MLB season, helping the Astros to the 2017 World Series Championship.
In 2019 and 2021, he also assisted in guiding the team to American League (AL) championships.
Gurriel was the second player born in Cuba to win the AL hitting title in 2021. He was the oldest player to ever win a Gold Glove at first base in 2021 after winning the AL Gold Glove Award for that position.
Are Yuli Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel Related?
Lourdes Gurriel is Yuli Gurriel biological brother. Lourdes Gurriel is the youngest of the Gurriel brothers and he is a left fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays.