Not so long ago, I was on the way to a friend’s office. A sports card shop is near my friend’s office, so I decided to stop by that store and see what was available there. There are truly a lot of sports cards. However, some hobby packs of the 2020 Topps Fire truly drew my attention.
I decided to buy those hobby packs of Topps Fire. After opening those packs, I found an interesting card. It’s an Aroldis Chapman power and pride insert. On the front, we can clearly see Chapman in the Yankees uniform with a flag of Cuba. As the World Baseball Classic is approaching, I’m just thinking about top pitchers from Cuba. Chapman was born in Cuba and has a great career. Among pitchers who were born in Cuba, how great is Chapman? To solve my doubts, I decided to check on the great baseball reference website.
Chapman has played in the majors for 16 seasons. He already pitched in 863 games (all as a relief pitcher) and he’s the only Cuban-born pitcher to reach 800+ games. Moreover, Diego Segui pitched in the majors from 1962 to 1977, posting a 3.81 ERA and a 1.35 WHIP over 1807.2 innings in 639 games. Meanwhile, Raisel Iglesias still pitches in the majors. He has pitched in 600 games and last season, he made 70 relief appearances. Furthermore, Pedro Ramos pitched in the majors from 1955 to 1970 and he tossed in 582 games. Luis Tiant made 484 starts and 89 relief appearances from 1964 to 1982.
In addition, let’s look at saves leaders from Cuba. Chapman now has 367 saves in his career. Last year, he collected 32 saves. At the same time, Raisel Iglesias has collected 253 saves and he picked up 29 saves in 2025. Danys Baez is the other player who collected 100+ saves in the majors.
Finally, let’s look at strikeouts. Luis Tiant struck out 2416 batters in 19 seasons. In particular, he threw 264 strikeouts in 1968. Camilo Pascual pitched in the majors from 1954 to 1971, throwing 2167 strikeouts. Livan Hernandez pitched in the majors from 1996 to 2012. He struck out 1976 batters in 17 seasons. And Mike Cuellar pitched in the majors from 1959 to 1977. He threw 1632 strikeouts. Chapman now has 1331 strikeouts.
Looking at the pitchers who were born in Cuba, Chapman’s performance is certainly impressive. He now leads in games pitched and saves. Additionally, he’s in the top 5 on the strikeout leaderboard. In 2026, the numbers will surely keep going up. He will surely play an important role in Cuban baseball history. Nonetheless, when I see the insert card and check on the baseball reference website, the first thing that comes to my mind is that things have become so different. In the 2026 World Baseball Classic, Chapman will not play for team Cuba as he used to do. Moreover, the last Topps Fire set was in 2022 and this series is no longer available. I don’t know if the Topps Fire will come back again. But this year, Chapman still pitches and it will be very interesting to see whether he will collect more saves than he did in 2025.
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