Detroit Tigers starter Keider Montero stepped into the Comerica Park clubhouse Thursday and was immediately asked the question on everyone’s mind.
"How is your family doing?" a media member asked.
For Montero, one of three Venezuelan-born Tigers players touched by the powerful earthquakes that rocked Venezuela’s northern coast on Wednesday, the answer brought relief.
Montero, who was born in Santa Teresa del Tuy about 125 miles from the first quake’s epicenter near San Felipe, said his family is safe. Most of his relatives still live in Santa Teresa del Tuy, while his mother lives in Maracay, roughly a 90-minute drive west of Caracas.
"I've talked to them, they're all fine, thank God," he said Thursday afternoon. "The support here has been great, everyone here is asking me if my family is okay."
The earthquakes have left Venezuela dealing with a rising death toll. The largest quake measured 7.7, the strongest recorded in the country since 1900, and the official count stood at 164 as of Thursday afternoon.
But Venezuelan acting president Delcy Rodríguez said that number is expected to climb, while the U.S. Geological Survey estimated the toll could rise into the " tens of thousands."
Montero wasn’t the only Tiger checking on loved ones. Relief pitcher Enmanuel De Jesus, born in Valencia just west of Maracay, and second baseman Gleyber Torres, born in Caracas, are the other Venezuelan players on Detroit’s active 26-man roster.
According to a team official, both of their families are safe. Torres was not available to comment as he continues rehabbing an oblique injury.
The impact reached beyond the players, too. Tigers communications manager and Spanish-language broadcaster Carlos Guillén said his family in Caracas is safe, but he noted the quakes caused extensive damage across the capital, which has a population of 2.2 million. On Thursday, Guillén also posted a thread on X explaining how people can help, including donations of clothing and toiletries.
The wider baseball world has felt the shock as well. The coastal state of La Guaira, birthplace of MLB stars Ronald Acuña Jr. and Maikel Garcia, was hit especially hard.
Garcia said on X that he spent more than three hours trying to reach his daughter and her mother, later posting that he finally got through at 1:09 a.m. ET on Thursday.
Not every family story had a reassuring ending. 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 quakes began around 6 p.m., less than an hour before first pitch of Detroit’s final game of a three-game series against the New York Yankees. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said the news spread quickly through the clubhouse as players and staff tried to learn whether their own families were safe.
Hinch said the baseball world needs to respond together.
"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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