César Prieto

César Prieto Echevarría

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 148 lb.

• Born May 10, 1999 in Abreus, Cienfuegos Cuba

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Biographical Information

César Prieto was a Rookie of the Year in Cuba then played for the Cuban national team.

Prieto was a dazzling performer for the Cuban team in the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup, hitting .581/.606/.646 with 3 hits in a loss to South Korea, 4 hits in a loss to Australia and 3 hits in a loss for Canada. He led the event in average (.157 ahead of Wandley Ocón), OBP (.087 ahead of Leonardo Seminati) and hits (18, 4 ahead of Ocón). He was 2nd with 20 total bases (one behind Jeyner Sanchez) and 3rd in slugging (behind Sanchez and Seminati). He made the All-Star team at 2B, joining Seminati (1B), Brice Turang (SS) and Noah Naylor (3B) on the infield. He was the only Cuban on the All-Star team. That winter, he debuted for Cienfuegos in the Cuban Serie Nacional but was just 1 for 17.

He did much better in 2018-2019, hitting .379/.429/.522 in the first half for Cienfuegos; when they did not make the second half, he was picked up by Villa Clara and batted .335/.363/.423 the remainder of the way. He scored 73 runs in 89 games overall. He shattered Kendry Morales' 18-year-old rookie record hit by 20, with 134. He finished first in the league in at-bats (376, 3 more than Orlando Acebey), 2nd in runs (15 behind Yuniesky Larduet), 2nd in hits (5 behind Acebey), tied for 3rd in triples (4, even with Larduet), 3rd in total bases (177, behind Stayler Hernández and Yordanis Samón), tied for 4th in sacrifice flies (11), 10th in average, first in assists (284), first in errors (25) and 2nd with 90 double plays turned (one behind Yunier Mendoza). He won Serie Nacional Rookie of the Year, though he lost Offensive All-Star honors at 2B to Carlos Benítez. He was the first Serie Nacional Rookie of the Year to split time between two teams.

The 20-year-old started at second for Cuba in the 2019 Pan American Games, singling off José Calero in his first at-bat and finishing at .438/.438/.500 though he fielded .913 with two errors in four games. He tied Samón for the team lead in hits and led in average and OBP. He was 7th in the Games in average. In the 2019 Premier 12, he was only 1 for 6 but outhit his teammates (.163 team average); Cuba wasn't the only team struggling to generate offense as Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico were all under .200, three of them under .170. His lone hit came off Jong-hun Park. In the 2019 Canadian-American Association, he hit .322/.344/.407 for Cuba. In 2019-2020, he batted .352/.440/.480 with 50 runs in 69 games. He tied for second with five triples (one behind Yoelkis Guibert), tied for 6th with 9 times plunked, was 7th in average (between Alexander Ayala and Yhosvani Peñalver), ranked 7th in OBP (between Ayala and Yorbis Borroto) and was 9th in OPS (between Ayala and Raico Santos). He was named the offensive All-Star at 2B.

He was on Cuba's roster for the 2020 Americas Olympic Qualifier before it got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020-2021, he was amazing at .403/.464/.579 with 78 runs in 74 games, with 31 walks to 11 strikeouts. He led in runs (six ahead of Santiago Torres), easily led in hits (128, 33 ahead of runner-up Jeison Martínez) and led also in doubles (21, one more than Mendoza), total bases (179, 22 ahead of Torres and Rafael Viñales) and average (.016 ahead of Humberto Bravo). He was among the leaders additionally in triples (6, 2nd, one behind Torres), slugging (7th, between Samón and Torres), OBP (9th, between Yariel Duque and Santos) and OPS (7th, between Pavel Quesada and Yasniel González). He was named both an Offensive and Defensive All-Star. Lisbán Correa beat him out for MVP.

After defecting following the 2020-21 winter league season, he signed with the Baltimore Orioles and began playing in the minor leagues in 2022. He started off with the Aberdeen IronBirds in the South Atlantic League then after 25 games moved up to Bowie BaySox of the AA Eastern League where he played another 90 games. Between the two stops, his batting line was .273/.314/.404 with 11 homers and 57 RBIs. In 2023, he started off with Bowie, then received another mid-season promotion, joining the AAA Norfolk Tides on June 21st. He hit a scorching .364 in 58 games in AA and was hitting .317 after 27 AAA games, having struck out a mere 27 times in 364 plate appearances between the two. On August 1st, he was one of the centerpieces of Baltimore's biggest deal of that year's trading deadline, being sent to the St. Louis Cardinals alongside Drew Rom and Zack Showalter in return for P Jack Flaherty. It was a good move for him, given the Orioles were awash with top infield prospects and he had little chance to break through the logjam in spite of his outstanding production in the minors.