Yadir Drake

Yadir Drake Domínguez
(El Dreke)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 200 lb.

• Born April 12, 1990 in Matanzas, Matanzas Cuba

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Biographical Information

Yadir Drake has played in Cuba, the US, Mexico, Venezuela and Japan. He has been on both the Mexican national team and the Cuban national team.

Drake debuted with the Cocodrilos de Matanzas in the 2009-2010. He singled off Yulieski González his first at-bat. Backing up Yaismel Alberro at catcher, he hit .276/.400/.483 in 35 plate appearances as a rookie. In 2010-2011, he was 9 for 39 with 5 walks. He then defected to Mexico.

He was signed by Los Angeles Dodgers scouts Mike Tosar, Patrick Guerrero and Frank Taveras Jr. in August 2014. Making his US debut, he played primarily for the Tulsa Drillers, hitting .269/.323/.335 in 106 games there, with 9 assists from right field to three errors. he then was the starting right fielder for Mexico in the 2015 Premier 12, the first Premier 12. His second-inning double off former Mariners star Freddy Garcia was Mexico's first hit in a Premier 12. He finished the event at .233/.281/.300 with 32 putouts, 2 assists and no errors. Mexico made it to the 3rd/4th place game, where they fell to Japan.

Back with Tulsa in 2016, he hit only .109/.155/.127 in 19 games and was let go. He played that winter for both the Cañeros de Los Mochis (.232/.278/.429 in 39 G) and Tigres de Aragua (4 for 9, BB, 2 2B). He batted .385/.450/.642 with 14 homers and 61 RBI in 71 games to open 2017 with the Generales de Durango, winning the Mexican League batting crown by .015 over Daniel Mayora. He led in OBP (.010 ahead of Saúl Soto), slugging (.058 ahead of Jesús Valdez) and OPS (82 ahead of Ramón Urías). That drew the interest of Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters, who signed him next. His first Nippon Pro Baseball hit was off Ryoma Nogami and his only homer off Rick van den Hurk. He hit .232/.267/.293 in 86 plate appearances over 35 games for them in 2017.

That winter, he played for both Los Mochis (.255/.331/.336 in 27 G) of Mexico and the Tiburones de la Guaira of Venezuela (.208/.279/.302 in 15 G). In 2018, he returned to Mexico, which went to a two-season format. In the spring season, he hit .383/.449/.583 in 30 games for Durango and .286/.327/.429 in 25 for the Sultanes de Monterrey. In the fall campaign, his batting line for Monterrey was .320/.395/.511 with 32 runs in 48 games. That winter, he hit .222/.323/.315 for the Charros de Jalisco.

In the summer of 2019, he batted .316/.396/.514 for Monterrey. He split the winter between the Tigres de Aragua (.250/.357/.321 in 26 G) and the Algodoneros de Guasave (.357/.471/.405 in 12 G), his third winter in which he appeared in two different countries. The 2020 Mexican League season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. He was back in action in the fall, producing at a .321/.375/.509 clip for Guasave with 40 RBI in 56 games. He made Mexican Pacific League leaderboards for average (4th, between Carlos Figueroa and Dariel Álvarez), slugging (3rd, behind Japhet Amador and Jesse Castillo), OPS (4th, between Castillo and Paulo Orlando), runs (tied Jorge Flores for 4th), hits (70, 2nd, one behind Figueroa), doubles (15, 2nd, one shy of Isaac Paredes), homers (8, tied for 9th) and RBI (4th, between Castillo and Álvarez). He also returned to Cuba, which was allowing defectors to return starting with the prior season. He hit .333/.422/.593 in the postseason.

He also played for Cuba in the Americas Olympic Qualifier, delayed to 2021 by the pandemic. He was not the first defector to return to Cuba and play for the national team; Pavel Quesada and Erisbel Arruebarruena had played for the team in 2019. He was the first player to suit up for Cuba after appearing for another national team, though. As with his Mexican team debut, his first game was against Venezuela and a player with an American League ERA title under their belt. This time, he flew out against Anibal Sánchez unlike his double off Freddy Garcia. His first hit for Cuba came off Canada's Ryan Kellogg. He finished the event 2-for-12 with a hit-by-pitch and two runs, handling seven putouts error-free in right.

Back in Mexico for the summer, he again played well there, batting .362/.412/.604 for the Leones de Yucatán. He also had 87 putouts, 8 assists and no errors in the field. He hit .305/.392/.435 for Guasave in 2021-2022, finishing 7th in average (between Nick Torres and Jhoan Urena), 8th in OBP (between Tirso Ornelas and Kyle Martin), 10th in slugging (between fellow Cubans Félix Pérez and Maikel Serrano), 9th in OPS (between Castillo and Joey Meneses) and runs (39, 4th). He also hit .357/.443/.571 for Matanzas in 2021-2022. With the 2022 Leones, he hit .328/.379/.530 with 14 homers and 67 runs in 84 games. He hit .273/.337/.408 that winter for the Yaquis de Obregón and stole 12 bases in 14 tries, finishing 8th in the LMP in steals and tying Christian Villanueva and Fernando Perez for third in RBI (42).

Drake was then on Cuba's roster for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.