At forty, Yuli Gurriel is eager to make a comeback with the Atlanta Braves.

It took Yuli Gurriel until he was 32 years old to get into Major League Baseball. He now seems set up for an unlikely comeback at forty years old.

He is slated to play for the Atlanta Braves, who are fighting for the last wild card place in the National League. Austin Riley, the third baseman, will miss more than a month due to a broken hand. Gio Urshela, a free agent, was signed by Atlanta right away to play third. If he’s not the solution, Gurriel might be.This week, Gurriel, who is normally a first baseman, started playing third base for the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers. In a single 2019 Houston Astros game, Gurriel hit.319 to win the American League batting title—the last time he played third. There, he participated in 92 games for Houston between 2016 and 2022.

Gurriel, who played 102 games for the Miami Marlins in 2023 and hit.245 with four home runs, signed a minor-league contract with Atlanta on April 16. He has hit.292 in 75 games at Gwinnett, with 12 home runs and 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts. He has played third flawlessly on all ten of his opportunities.Gurriel flashed the leather at first base earlier this season at Gwinnett, where he has always been an above-average fielder.For the Braves, Urshela is 2 for 7 at the plate. On August 18, the Detroit Tigers released the 32-year-old, who had hit.243 with five home runs in 92 games. Over 758 MLB games, he is a.273 hitter with 318 RBI; in 909 games, Gurriel is a.281 hitter with 462 RBI.
Ursehla and Gurriel might make a unique platoon. They are both right-handed. Throughout his career, Gurriel has hit right-handers marginally better than lefties. When it comes to lefties, Urshela excels. Ursela may enter the game in the latter innings as a defensive substitute when Gurriel starts at third base. Gurriel might move to first base to relieve seasoned player Matt Olson.

Gurriel was a 17-year-old sensation in Cuba back in 2002 when he batted .300 as a rookie in 87 games – all as a third baseman. Over 15 seasons in The Cuban National Series, he played exactly 1,000 games at the hot corner. His strong arm helped him turn 293 double plays and get 2,356 assists. Some errant throws at times contributed to 153 errors.

Gurriel was a feared hitter above everything else. He had a.340 average, 320 doubles, 257 home runs, and 643 walks compared to just 434 strikeouts in 1,185 games in the CNS. In international competition, he was the main player for the Cuban National Team, which won gold medals at the 2004 Olympics, the 2003 and 2007 Pan American Games, and a number of other prestigious competitions. In 20 games throughout the 2006, 2009, and 2013 World Baseball Classics, he hit.293 and had five home runs.

Following a.311 batting When he came home from Japan in 2014, he was having one of the best seasons of any player, anywhere, at any time. He batted, get this:.495 in 54 games with 15 home runs, 41 walks, and just 4 strikeouts.Yuli became into an important player in the Astros’ yearly playoff run. When he batted in 2019, that was his greatest season.343 with 104 RBI and 31 home runs. In the seven-game World Series defeat to the Washington Nationals that year, he batted.310.The Braves brought in a 42-year-old former batting champion to provide assistance more than 20 years ago. He was a DH, first baseman, and third baseman until the age of 48.In 1996, Julio Franco made his MLB debut with the Cleveland Indians at the age of 37. He hit.322 in Cleveland after discovering the elixir of youth there in 1995 after batting.306 in Japan. After being traded to Milwaukee, he left for South Korea and Mexico, went back to Japan, and got one at-bat with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

In 110 games, Franco hit.437 with 18 home runs and 90 RBI with the Braves. On August 31, 2001, they bought his contract from the Mexico City Tigres. In 25 games, he batted.300, helping Atlanta defeat the Philadelphia Phillies by two games to win the NL East. In the postseason, he hit.278 with two home runs.
Franco batted.285 with 32 home runs and 213 RBI between 2001 and 2007. He was made to hit, much like Gurriel. Gurriel now wants to show that, even at his elderly age, he can still hit like Franco.