In a week, the last ticket to the Tokyo Olympics 2020, with only three teams following the losses of Chinese Taipei and Australia.
Several players with experience in MLB will be in action for the selections of Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Holland will be the third in dispute.
The 37-year-old Venezuelan right-hander has 15 seasons of experience in the Big leagues. In the Florida pre-Olympic he had two outings – against Cuba and the United States – and will join the national team while he waits for a call to return to MLB.
Since 2018, the Dominican has not played in the majors. His last team was the Philadelphia Phillies and he’s still waiting for a chance to come back. He played the pre-Olympic in Florida and is concentrated with his national team at the Indian River College in Fort Pierce, from where they will travel to Mexico on Thursday 17.
In May he accepted a minor league contract with the Milwaukee Brewers and that allowed him to be part of Venezuela’s ninth in the pre-Olympic, becoming the offensive benchmark of the group led by José Alguacil. Perez, who can defend second and third base and the outfield, has played for a decade in the majors.
The outfielder who wore the jerseys of Yankees, Royals, Giants, Blue Jays, White Sox, Indians and Pirates in his 15 years as a MLB player, he was part of the group that played in Florida and although he is now solving things in the Dominican Republic, he is expected to return to the concentration on Monday 14.
A fracture caused him to lose the opportunity to make the team with the New York Yankees this spring, in what would be his 10th season in the majors, but the Florida pre-Olympic showed that he is in good condition. The Venezuelan receiver will also go to Puebla in search of the Olympic qualification.