HobbsDailyReport.com
YANIO PEREZ
He’s been promoted to Class A Advance Kinston in the Carolina League’s Southern Division.
HICKORY – Another Hickory Crawdads standout has been promoted by the Texas Rangers.
Infielder Yanio Perez will advance to play for the Down East Wood Ducks in Kinston — the Rangers’ Class A Advanced team — the Crawdads announced Monday in a press release.
Perez, 21 and a native of Cuba, is the fifth player promoted that began the 2017 season on Hickory’s opening day roster.
As of early Monday night, Perez was not yet listed on the Ducks’ rosters. They are playing a Carolina League three-game series at Winston-Salem through Wednesday, then a series at home on Thursday through Sunday against Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Monday’s press release did not indicate who would like the open Crawdads roster spot created by Yanio Perez moving up.
Perez has been one of the best hitters in the South Atlantic League (SAL) this season. He leaves Hickory ranked among the league leaders in home runs (9, tied for fourth); slugging percentage (.533, fourth); on-base percentage (.392, fourth) and batting average (.322, fifth).
Perez signed with Texas as an international free agent last December.
He had at least one hit in 36 of the 49 games he played for the Crawdads and had 15 multi-hit games. He also had hitting streaks of eight and six games while playing for Hickory.
Perez was recently selected for the Northern Division roster for the 2017 SAL All-Star Game later this month in Columbia, S.C., and was also the SAL Player of the Week for April 24-30.
The other Crawdads who have earned promotions this season are right-handed pitchers Tyler Davis, Tyler Ferguson and Jonathan Hernandez and infielder Brallan Perez, all of whom were sent to Kinston.
Davis is 0-2 with an ERA of 8.70 in four starts at Kinston, and Ferguson has made three appearances with an ERA of 20.25.
Hernandez, in two starts, is 0-2 with an ERA of 12.38, and Brallan Perez has been promoted again, to Class AAA Round Rock (Tex.), where in two games he is 0-for-5. He played 27 games for Kinston, hitting .258 with five RBIs.