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 professional back 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 had a 3-season stint with the San Diego Padres before joining the LA Dodgers in 2015.
Yasmani Grandal Bio (Age)
Yasmani Grandal was born on November 8, 1988, in Havana, Cuba but did much of his growing up in the US where his family eventually moved to when he was just 10.
Following a successful high school baseball career at Miami Springs High School in Miami Springs, Florida, Grandal was ranked among the top 20 baseball players of 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 did not eventually sign with the team as he was dissatisfied with their offer. Shelving the idea of going professional, he enrolled for college at the University of Miami and he 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 as a sophomore, he batted .299. The highlight of his college career came in his junior season during which he hit an astonishing .401 with 15 home runs, 60 runs batted in (RBIs) with a .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 voting for the Golden Spikes Award. The talented player equally received NCBWA Division I All-America Team honors.
Ethnicity – Where is he From
Originally, Grandal’s mother Maria Luisa Gomez, and his father Avelino Grandal are both of Hispanic descent hence he was born in Cuba. The family lived in Havana until his parent’s marriage packed up before he turned one and his mother remarried afterward. He spent the first 10 years of his life in his native country before his family moved to the US. As an early bloomer, Grandal played for a junior squad of the Cuban national baseball team as a shortstop and third baseman. His entire family emigrated to the United States in 1999 via the lottery system.
Yasmani Grandal Professional Career
With 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 for 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, the then-Triple-A affiliates of the San Diego Padres. However, he was later called up to the main team and he marked 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 from each side of the plate for his first two career hits in a single game. He ultimately finished the season with a slash line of .297/.394/.469, 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 that he incurred in July 2013. He ultimately featured in only 28 games for the season, batted .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 first Dodgers catcher in 60 years to record 2 home runs and a bunt single in a single game. He earned the first All-Star selection of his career as he was named for the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. For the entire 2015 season, Grandal hit .234 with 16 HR and 47 RBI. His upped his performance in the 2016 season as he finished with a batting average of .228 with 27 HR 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 she was raised in Mesa, Arizona. She is a nurse having obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.
The couple got married on October 19, 2013. Their son Yasmani Ryker Grandal was born on October 23, 2017. They also have a daughter Alaynah (born in March 2009), Heather’s child from a previous relationship.
