Roibert Decena

Roibert Orlando Decena Pineda

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• School Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

• Born August 20, 1997 in Dominican Republic

Biographical Information

Roibert Decena has played in the Spanish Baseball League and for the Spanish national team.

Decena hit .480/.500/1.080 with 9 runs and 9 RBI in six games for Spain in the 2015 European Junior Championship, with 8 extra-base hits (3 homers) and was 0-1 with a 5.40 ERA, losing to Yannic Wildenhain and Germany. He was second in average (.020 behind Ruben Prins), led in slugging (.128 ahead of Julian Rip), tied for 9th in OBP, tied Miguel Rodríguez for 6th in runs, tied Radim Novotný for the most hits (12), tied for second in RBI (five shy of Marek Chlup), tied for the most doubles (4), tied for second with one triple, led in homers, led in total bases (27, 7 ahead of Rip). He debuted in Spain in 2016, hitting .283/.317/.367 for CB Barcelona.

He improved to .366/.416/.643 with 25 runs, 25 RBI, 11 doubles and six homers in 28 games for Barcelona in 2017. He made leaderboards for average (6th, between Yancarlo Franco and Sandel Cuevas), slugging (5th, between Blake Ochoa and Jean Acevedo), hits (41, tied Lesther Galván for second, 6 behind Leopoldo Correa), doubles (tied for 2nd, six Galván behind Correa), homers (4th), total bases (72, 3rd, behind Michel Rodriguez and Correa). He hit .250/.333/.292 in the 2017 European Championship U23. For Barcelona that summer, he batted .488/.561/.750 with 22 runs, 21 RBI and 11 doubles in 21 games. He was 1-0 with three unearned runs in 5 1/3 IP (5 BB, 5 K, 1 H). He won the batting title by .004 over Leopoldo Correa. He was 7th in slugging (between Eric Segura and Cuevas), 3rd in OBP (after Correa and Cuevas) and tied for 6tht in doubles.

That earned him a team on Spain's team for the 2018 Super6. His first game, he pinch-ran for Yancarlo Franco and scored on an Engel Beltre homer. His first time up, he popped up against Daniel Thieben of German. He got one hit, a pinch-hit two-run single off the Netherlands' Loek van Mil. He finished the event 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBI. In '19, he produced at a .423/.515/.663 clip with 29 runs, 24 RBI, 20 walks and 14 doubles in 28 games and was also 3-0 with a save and a 4.38 ERA. He had 74 putouts, 5 assists and no errors on defense. Only five players in Spain's top league had a perfect fielding percentage that year in more chances. He was 6th in average, 6th in OBP, tied for 5th in hits (44), tied for the most doubles and was 10th in total bases.

In 2020, he fell to .319/.429/.536 with 18 runs in 18 games. He was 0-1 with a 15.75 ERA and fielded .977. He only made the leaderboard in triples (2, tied for 1st), at-bats and strikeouts. He moved to the Astros Valencia for 2021. In the 2021 CEB Cup, he hit .417/.417/.542 with five RBI, three doubles and five steals (not caught) in five games, also pitching one shutout inning. He tied for 8th in RBI, tied for 5th in doubles and led in steals. In the Spanish season, his batting line for Valencia was .312/.398/.623 with 21 RBI in 20 contests. He fielded .971 and threw 1 1/3 shutout innings. He had a league-leading four triples. He then played for Spain in the 2021 European Championship. Backing up former major leaguer Beltre in center, he went 2-for-3 with a run and a RBI, seeing most of his action against Ukraine, with hits off Danyil Khodakovskyi and Andrii Boiko.

Roibert was at .376/.412/.617 in 2022 with 38 RBI and handled 54 chances without an error. He was 9th in runs, 2nd in runs (50, 10 behind Wander Encarnacion), 4th in doubles (13), tied for 7th in homers (5), 2nd in RBI (one shy of Encarnacion), 2nd in total bases (82, 29 behind Encarnacion), 8th in slugging (between Eduardo Blanco and Denny Nino) and tied for 10th in steals (7). In the 2022 Federation Cup, he helped Valencia to the title, going 9-for-24 with 3 doubles, a triple, 8 runs and 5 RBI in 5 games, going 4-for-4 in steals. His outfield defense was superb with 13 putouts, 3 assists and no errors. He led the event in runs, tied Edgar Rondon for the most hits, tied for second in doubles (one behind Edison Valerio), tied for 6th in RBI, led in total bases (14, one ahead of Emmanuel Febles), was 6th in slugging and tied Rondon for the most swipes.