Hemmanuel Rosario hasn’t had the typical upward trajectory that leads to a Major League Baseball career, but he took a big step forward this week.
Once a New York Yankees international signing, the 25-year-old Rosario hasn’t appeared in affiliated ball since 2023, when he elected free agency at the end of his seventh year in the Yankees organization. He played the last two years in the Frontier League, an independent partner league of MLB.
On Wednesday, the official Frontier League account posted that Rosario had his contract purchased by the Houston Astros. He had been signed to the non-affiliated Brockton Rox, who play their home games just outside of Boston.
Rosario, who hails from San Juan, Puerto Rico, played 95 games in the Yankees organization and didn’t do much with the bat. He posted a .506 OPS, homered three times, and racked up 98 strikeouts. He was significantly better in the Frontier League, with an .800 OPS in 64 games in 2024 and an .806 OPS in 90 games this past season.
A move like this one isn’t geared toward helping the roster in the short term. The Astros are satisfied with their current starting catcher, Yainer Diaz, and it’s not as if Rosario is close to becoming his backup at the moment.
But teams are always scouring the entire baseball landscape outside of the affiliated minor-league ranks in case there’s a hidden gem. It would be particularly fun for the Astros to uncover Rosario as one of those gems, given his longtime affiliation with the rival Yankees.
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