Jesús Sánchez #76

Jesús' older brother, Nerva, began to coach him on baseball when Jesús was nine…Nerva insisted on modeling his swing after David Ortiz, forcing Jesús to turn around and bat left-handed…with no television to watch major league games, it was left to Nerva to set an example on everything related to the game...Jesús was invited to participate in the 2018 Futures Game at Nationals Park…his manager there was David Ortiz...As a child, Jesús would sometimes sleep at his church if he knew there was no dinner at home…hunger was an all-too-familiar part of his childhood...Jesús attended the MLB Rookie Career Development Program in Miami in January along with Jalen Beeks and Nick Ciuffo… the four-day orientation program included media training, time management and financial planning.

2018

Named Most Valuable Player for Class-A Charlotte by the Rays Baseball Operations department, his fourth team MVP honor...Promoted to Double-A Montgomery on Aug 3 and appeared in 27 games for the Biscuits to end the season…combined to hit .282 (129-for-457) with 11 HR and 75 RBI between the two levels… his 75 RBI were 6th among Rays minor leaguers...Finished the season with a career-high 32 2B...reached double-digit homers for a second consecutive year...Named to the Florida State League midseason and postseason All-Star teams…ranked among league leaders in avg. (.301, 4th), slugging pct. (.462, 4th) and RBI (64, 6th)...Was the starting right fielder for the World team in the Futures Game in July at Nationals Park...Hit .368/.429/.684 (7-for-19) with 1 HR and 3 RBI in 5 games in the Southern League postseason...Played 4 games for the Toros del Este in the Dominican Winter League...Named to the Rays Organizational All-Star Team by MLB.com for a third consecutive year...Ranked by Baseball America as the No. 62 overall prospect in the minors following the season… was the No. 6 prospect in the Rays system and No. 8 prospect in the FSL…the publication also tabbed him as the Best Power Hitter in the organization and the Best Batting Prospect in the FSL in its Best Tools survey.