Yasmani Grandal Wife, Family, Ethnicity, Where is he from?

Yasmani Grandal is a professional baseball player who plies his trade with Major League Baseball side Los Angeles Dodgers where he plays in the catcher position. Grandal turned pro in 2010 after a successful college career at the University of Miami. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds where he spent the first 2 years of his professional career. He also spent three seasons with the San Diego Padres before joining the LA Dodgers in 2015.

Yasmani Grandal’s Bio (Age)

Yasmani Grandal was born on November 8, 1988 in Havana, Cuba, but grew up in the United States where his family eventually moved when he was 10 years old.

After a successful high school baseball career at Miami Springs High School in Miami Springs, Florida, Grandal was ranked as one of the top 20 baseball players in the class of 2007. He entered the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft and was selected in the 27th round by the Boston Red Sox. However, he ultimately didn’t sign with the team as he was unhappy with their offer. Giving up on the idea of ​​turning professional, he enrolled in the University of Miami and played for the Miami Hurricanes baseball team during his 3-year stay at the institution.

Yasmani Grandal recorded a .234 batting average in his freshman season and in sophomore he hit .299. The highlight of his college career came in his junior season in which he hit an astonishing .401 with 15 homers, 60 runs batted in (RBI) on .527 on-base percentage in 62 appearances. His outstanding performance earned him the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year award and he finished second in the balloting for the Golden Spikes Award. The talented player also received NCBWA Division I All-America Team honors.

Ethnicity – Where is he from

Originally, Grandal’s mother, Maria Luisa Gomez, and father Avelino Grandal are both of Hispanic descent, from where he was born in Cuba. The family lived in Havana until his parents’ wedding was planned before he was a year old and his mother then remarried. He spent the first 10 years of his life in his native country before his family moved to the United States. In early bloom, Grandal played for a junior Cuban national baseball team as a shortstop and third baseman. His whole family emigrated to the United States in 1999 through the lottery system.

Professional career

With the talent and skill still fresh, Yasmani Grandal was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2010 MLB Draft as the 12th overall pick. His spell with the team lasted 2 seasons during which he was assigned to several minor league baseball teams. In December 2011, he was traded to the San Diego Padres in a multiplayer deal. At the start of the 2012 season, Grandal was assigned to the Tucson Padres, then a triple-affiliated San Diego Padres. However, he was later called up to the main squad and he made his major league debut as a substitute on June 2, 2012.

In his historic MLB rookie season, Grandal was named to the 2012 All-Star Futures Game. On June 30, 2012, he made history as the first MLB player to score a pair of home runs on either side of the plate. for his first two career hits in a single game. He ultimately finished the season with a .297/.394/.469 slash, with 8 home runs and 36 RBIs in 60 appearances, including 52 starts.

In November 2012, Yasmani Grandal tested positive for banned substances which earned him a 50 game suspension. In addition to the suspension, his 2013 season was also marred by a knee injury he suffered in July 2013. He ultimately only played 28 games for the season, batting .216 with one HR and 9 RBI. For the 2014 season, the talented player batted .225/.327/.401 with 15 HR and 49 RBI in 128 games. »

Grandal was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a multiplayer deal in December 2014. He made history on June 21, 2015, when he became the Dodgers’ first catcher in 60 years to record 2 homers and 1 hit. in a single game. He earned the first All-Star selection of his career by being named to the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. For the entire 2015 season, Grandal hit .234 with 16 HR and 47 RBI. He increased his performance in the 2016 season by finishing with a .228 batting average with 27 RH and 72 RBI in 126 games. For the 2017 MLB season, a stellar performance saw him hit .247 in 129 games with 22 homers.

wife, family

Yasmani Grandal’s wife, Heather Grandal (née Thomas) was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Mesa, Arizona. She is a registered nurse and earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.

The couple married on October 19, 2013. Their son Yasmani Ryker Grandal was born on October 23, 2017. They also have a daughter Alaynah (born March 2009), Heather’s child from a previous relationship.