SANTO DOMINGO.- The Lions of the Chosen Baseball Operations department, led by general manager Luis Rojas, has new faces for the 2022-23 season of the Professional Baseball League of the Dominican Republic (Lidom).
One of them is Joseph Baptist, whose role in the Chosen is that of Special Advisor for Baseball Operations. The former baseball player played from 2004 to 2018 in the Major Leagues, where he was called up to the All-Star Game six times, won three Silver Sluggers and won two Hank Aaron awards.
With the Toronto Blue Jays he was the home run leader twice in the American League and last summer he participated as a player with the Dominican Republic baseball team that won a bronze medal at the last Tokyo Olympics.
Likewise, Jaylon Pimentel returned to the Lions to serve as Director of Operations, a position he held with the red team from 2018 to 2019. He was also with the Chosen One from 2012 to 2018 as assistant to the general manager.
Pimentel is currently a Pro Scout for the New York Yankees and in the last tournament he served as Director of Operations for the champions the Cibao Giants. His scouting experience also includes jobs with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Rays.
Martín Valerio, Joel Lithgow and José Almonte are also new pieces that are already working in favor of the scarlet cause.
Valerio is a Special Assistant to General Manager Rojas and has experience as Director of Operations for the Tigres del Licey (2021-22), an organization for which he also worked in Operations and as a Pro Scout (2016-21).
He also worked with the Eastern Stars (2015-16) and has worked with the Yankees, Seattle Mariners and New York Mets in administrative, scouting and development.
Lithgow works in Administrative Operations for the club and is currently the Director of the Yankees Latin American Academy. He previously worked in the legal department of the Major League Baseball (MLB) offices in the country.
Almonte, who is a Pro Scout for the Miami Marlins, serves as the Scouting Coordinator for the Chosen One. In the last tournament he was a forward scout for the Giants.
Miguel Prestol and Luis Javier remain within the organization as Baseball Operations Coordinator and Analytics Coordinator, respectively.
Prestol is an Area Scout for the Atlanta Braves and has been with the Chosen since 2018. Javier has been part of the Lions Analytics department since 2015.
