Gurriel and the Houston Astros agreed to a five-year, $47.5 million contract on July 16, 2016. In the Astros’ minor league system that season, he appeared in a total of 15 games.
He played in two games for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast Astros in July, marking his American debut. The Lancaster JetHawks of the Class A-Advanced California League then received his promotion.
The Astros promoted Gurriel to the Corpus Christi Hooks of the Class AA Texas League after he appeared in four games for Lancaster.
He was promoted to the Fresno Grizzlies of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League after hitting just 2-for-17 (.118) in five games for Corpus Christi.
On August 21, he was called up from Fresno to the major league roster. He played largely first and third base defensively in his first 19 games with the Astros, batting.344 with three home runs and eight runs batted in.
Gurriel had a .299/.332/.486 batting line over 139 games in 2017, giving him a 121 adjusted OPS (OPS+). 564 plate appearances, 43 doubles, 18 home runs, 75 RBI, 22 bases on balls, and 62 strikeouts were among the additional cumulative totals.
He saw the fewest pitches per plate appearance in the major leagues despite finishing sixth in the American League (AL) in doubles and second in at-bats per strikeout .
He was the top rookie in the major leagues in terms of batting, second among AL rookies in terms of hits (158) and extra-base hits (62), and third in terms of runs (69) and OPS (.817).
Hunter Pence (30 and 56, 2007), Jeff Bagwell (.437, 1991), Joe Morgan, and Gurriel all established club rookie records for doubles, extra base hits, slugging percentage, and total bases, respectively (251, 1965).
Gurriel had 90 defensive assists, which put him in second place among AL first basemen.
Gurriel finished fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting after the regular season.
He was named the Astros Rookie of the Year by the Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA).
Where Is Yuli Gurriel Now?
Yuli Gurriel is with the Houstons Astros now. Yuli has been with the Astros since 2016 when he defected from Cuba with his brother.