Detroit Tigers left-hander Keider Montero walked into the Comerica Park clubhouse on Thursday and got right to the heart of the matter.
"How is your family doing?" a media member asked.
That question carried extra weight after a powerful series of earthquakes hit Venezuela’s northern coast on Wednesday, leaving Montero and two other Venezuelan-born Tigers with loved ones in the middle of the uncertainty. Montero said his family was safe after he checked in with them.
"I've talked to them, they're all fine, thank God," he said Thursday afternoon. Most of his family remains in Santa Teresa del Tuy, while his mother lives in Maracay, about a 90-minute drive west of Caracas.
"The support here has been great, everyone here is asking me if my family is okay."
Montero, who was born in Santa Teresa del Tuy, is one of three Venezuelan players on Detroit’s active 26-man roster affected by the quakes. Relief pitcher Enmanuel De Jesus, a native of Valencia just west of Maracay, and second baseman Gleyber Torres, who was born in Caracas, are the others.
A team official said both of their families are safe. Torres was not available for comment as he continues rehabbing an oblique injury.
The earthquakes were devastating across Venezuela. The largest measured 7.7, the strongest recorded in the country since 1900, and the official death toll was 164 as of Thursday afternoon.
Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez said the number is expected to rise, while the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the toll could climb into the " tens of thousands."
The damage reached well beyond the Tigers’ locker room. Carlos Guillén, Detroit’s communications manager and Spanish-language broadcaster, said his family in Caracas is safe, but he described extensive destruction in the capital, home to 2.2 million people. On Thursday, Guillén posted a thread on X laying out ways people can help, including donations of clothing and toiletries.
The impact has been felt throughout the MLB world, especially in Venezuela’s coastal state of La Guaira, the birthplace of Ronald Acuña Jr. and Maikel Garcia. Garcia said on X that he spent more than three hours trying to reach his daughter and her mother before finally getting in touch with them at 1:09 a.m. ET Thursday.
Not everyone got that relief. Venezuelan media reported Wednesday that a La Guaira hotel collapsed during the earthquakes, killing family members of former MLB players Gorkys Hernández and Eliézer Alfonzo.
The earthquakes began around 6 p.m., less than an hour before first pitch of the Tigers’ final game of a three-game set against the New York Yankees. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the news spread quickly through the clubhouse as players and staff checked on family members back home.
Hinch said the baseball world has a responsibility to respond.
"I've spent a lot [of time] this morning checking in with different people around the game, just because I don't know where everybody is," he said. "When you see the footage, it's almost unthinkable. Us as a community, a baseball community at that, all we can do is love on them and support them, and if there's something that's needed or a cause to join, we need to do it."
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