The White Sox team ambassador parade is easy great optics. Bringing back Tim Raines returns a member of the 2005 World Series-winning coaching staff in addition to a Hall of Famer, and appears to heal any lasting wounds from when he was let go after 2006. Fellow new team ambassador A.J. Pierzynski will be hard-pressed to make it out of any of his visits to Guaranteed Rate Field without being bombarded with fans trying to buy him a beer, and the White Sox’s giddy approach to celebrating their own history is good and fan-friendly.
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But nothing is as attention-grabbing as the return of Jose Contreras, who has rejoined the organization not just as an ambassador, but as a mentor to young Latino players. With a particular focus on fellow countrymen Yoan Moncada and Luis Robert, Contreras will help acclimate them to living and working in the United States. Given the investment the Sox have made in Latino talent, any efforts to improve their environment seems like a value-add, and Contreras put the matter in stark terms.
“It’s something that people have to understand and take into consideration when you are trying to evaluate the performance of us on the field,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “My role is going to be very important to the White Sox because I think I can help those young guys who try to make the adjustment, who try to make this process as smooth as possible, and just trying to share my experience and trying to help in wherever they need me.”
Former White Sox batterymates A.J. Pierzynski and Jose Contreras have both recently rejoined the organization as team ambassadors. (Ron Vesely/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
When asked who served as his mentor and aided his transition when he debuted with the Yankees in 2003, Contreras indicated that help really didn’t come until he was paired with fellow Cuban Orlando Hernandez on the White Sox in 2005. Not coincidentally, he felt that relationship enabled him to have his best season.
“He helped me to improve and to do better, not just on the field but off the field too,” said Contreras, who posted a 3.61 ERA and a league-high 20 wins during his first full season in Chicago in 2005. “That’s why I think that it’s very important for young kids, especially for those kids that are not from here. Especially in my case, I’m referring to the kids from Cuba because when you left the island, you know that you can’t come back.
“When I left the island, I spent 11 years after I was able to come back. My dad died and I had to bury him by phone. I wasn’t able to come back there and to be with him or with my family at that time. People don’t realize how hard it is for us because it’s hard for everybody but the guys from Japan or the guys from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela, once the season ends, they could go back to their country. For us as Cubans, we couldn’t and that made the process even tougher for us.”
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That’s no longer the case for Cubans at this point. Jose Abreu, whose easy transition to producing in the majors is something Contreras admires, is now able to regularly visit his son Dariel after a difficult first two seasons, and Moncada traveled back to the island after the 2017 season ended. Still, the isolation during the season for a player coming over from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela or elsewhere is an additional level of difficulty that Contreras feels he can help with and guide players through. So when Kenny Williams interrupted his workout with a call about a job, once Contreras got over the shock, he leaped at the opportunity.
“I lived the experience as a player and I survived that process,” Contreras said. “Now with experience I can tell the young guys to make adjustments more smoothly, to help and put them in the best possible position. I’ve passed through that process, I know how to do it, and that’s why I feel very confident that I can [help] with those young kids because I know what they have to expect, and pass through to perform at the level they want.”
(Top photo: AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
