Royals Sign MVP Custodio; Welcome Back Handful of Players
GUELPH - The Guelph Royals Baseball Club is thrilled to announce the signing of 2022 IBL MVP Claudio Custodio.
Custodio, now 34, will return to the Royal City in July once his season in Venezuela ends.
Since leaving the Royals after the 2023 season, Custodio has spent time pitching in both Venezuela and Mexico.
In his two seasons with Guelph (2022-23), the two-way Custodio was dominant, setting the single-season IBL record for strikeouts in 2022 (196 strikeouts in just 120 innings pitched), before loweing his 2023 season ERA down to a staggering 1.60 in 28 innings pitched.
The native of the Dominican Republic was dominant with his bat, too, hitting .404 in 47 at-bats in 2022 before hitting .714 in just seven at-bats in the 2023 playoffs.
The Royals are also excited to welcome back starting pitcher Hector Yan, reliever Nelson Mercado, and infielders Brando Leroux and Blake Simpson.
Mercado and Leroux recently completed their college careers and are pegged to be key contrubitors to the Royals in 2025, while Yan returns to add depth to the Royals starting pitching throughout the summer.
Simpson, meanwhile, will provide infield depth throughout the regular season.
Finally, the team is happy to announce the signing of import arm Sebastian Rodriguez, who made his debut Sunday against the Kitchener Panthers.
Rodriguez, who began the season with the Toronto Maple Leafs, is a former Pittsburgh Pirates prospect and will provide depth on the mound as the team awaits Custodio's arrival.
To make room for Custodio and Rodriguez, the team has released import reliever Yomar Concepcion, who awaits his status in Canada.
Royals assistant general manager Ryan Eakin commented on the team's recent moves.
"Import wise, coming into the offseason, our goal was to bring back Franklin Torres (who arrives in July with Custodio), find an ace, and find a closer.
"Between re-signing Torres, signing Edgar Garcia -- who has yet to allow a run this season as our closer -- and now signing Custodio, who is the best pitcher in the league, we have checked off all three of those goals.
"We have a fourth import coming in July with Torres and Custodio, a catcher who we are very excited about, so that leaves great competition between Yan, Rodriguez, Gaku Ueda, and potentially Yomar. That excites me a ton because it is going to come down to whoever the best performer is.
"As for Mercado and Leroux, we did not plan on having either back. We certainly had hoped so, but both should be playing professionally somewhere, so we did not plan on having them back. But Mercado is going to be a massive part of the back-end of our bullpen, while Leroux is already an All-Star infielder in this league."