ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Close friends and friendly rivals. This is somewhat of a dream match-up for Randy Arozarena.
The Tampa Bay Rays’ all-star outfielder will square off against Texas Rangers’ Adolis Garcia in the first round of Monday night's Home Run Derby in Seattle.
“I feel very happy to compete with him,” Arozarena said via interpreter Manny Navarro. “He’s the godfather to my daughter. We’re really good friends. We talk to each other a lot. We give each other a lot of advice.”
Arozarena and Garcia are Cuban-born superstars. They became tight while coming through the ranks of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
“With the stories that we’ve had, the way we got here, the way we escaped Cuba,” Arozarena said. “It’s going to be great seeing us up here.”
Seeding for the home run derby is based on first-half home runs. Garcia (23 home runs) is the four-seed, and Arozarena (16) is the five-seed in the eight-man bracket.
That means they’ll go head-to-head in round one.
“For us, being in the finals would be the best-case scenario,” Arozarena said. “But starting with each other, I think it’s going to be great. We’re going to forget about the rivalry. We’re going out there as friends; we came up together, his story, my story, playing together in another organization. I think we’re both going to be winners after this.
“But I want to beat him.”
The Home Run Derby begins at 8 p.m. at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
