Detroit Tigers starter Keider Montero had just entered the Comerica Park clubhouse Thursday, June 25, when he was hit with an emotional question.
“How is your family doing?” a media member asked.
Montero is one of three Venezuelan-born Tigers players affected by a powerful series of earthquakes that struck Venezuela’s northern coast on Wednesday.
Born in Santa Teresa del Tuy, about 125 miles from the initial earthquake’s epicenter near the town of San Felipe in the north of the country, Montero said his family was safe.
“I’ve talked to them, they’re all fine, thank God,” he said Thursday afternoon. Most of his family lives in Santa Teresa del Tuy, except for his mom who lives in Maracay, about a 90-minute drive west of the capital Caracas.
“The support here has been great, everyone here is asking me if my family is okay.”
The official death toll from the earthquakes, the largest one at a magnitude 7.7, the strongest recorded in Venezuela since 1900, is at 164 as of Thursday afternoon. But Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez says the death toll is expected to rise, with the U.S. Geological Survey estimating the death toll could climb into the “tens of thousands.”
Relief pitcher Enmanuel De Jesus, born in Valencia just west of Maracay, and second baseman Gleyber Torres, born in Caracas, are the other two Venezuelan players on the Tigers’ active 26-man roster. Per a team official, the families of both players are all safe, though Torres was unavailable for comment as he continues rehabbing an oblique injury.
Another Tigers official affected by the earthquakes is communications manager and Spanish-language broadcaster Carlos Guillén, whose family lives in Caracas. He said his family is safe, but that the quakes did extensive damage throughout the capital, a city of 2.2 million people.
Guillén on Thursday posted a thread on X directing how people can help by donating needed goods like clothing and toiletries.
The earthquakes have affected many in the MLB community, with the coastal state of La Guaira, birthplace of MLB stars Ronald Acuña Jr and Maikel Garcia, hit especially hard. Garcia on X said he spent over three hours trying to contact his daughter and her mother, posting that he had finally reached them at 1:09 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Others in the baseball community weren’t as lucky. Various Venezuelan media members reported on Wednesday that a La Guaira hotel collapsed during the quakes, killing family members of former MLB players Gorkys Hernández and Eliézer Alfonzo.
The quakes began around 6 p.m. on Thursday, less than an hour before first pitch of the Tigers final game of a three-game set against the New York Yankees. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the news circled throughout the clubhouse with many questions about how certain family members were doing.
Hinch expressed the need for the baseball community to rally and support those affected by the quakes.
“I’ve spent a lot [of time] this morning checking in with different people around the game, just because I don’t know where everybody is,” he said. “When you see the footage, it’s almost unthinkable. Us as a community, a baseball community at that, all we can do is love on them and support them, and if there’s something that’s needed or a cause to join, we need to do it.”
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Families of Venezuelan-born Detroit Tigers safe after major earthquakes
Reporting by Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Christian Romo, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
