This tale was excerpted from Anthony DiComo’s Mets Beat publication. To go through the whole e-newsletter, click on in this article. And subscribe to get it consistently in your inbox.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Previous month, Mark Vientos was working out in the Mets’ Clover Park pounds space when José Iglesias whipped out his mobile phone and keyed up a tunes online video. It was “No Voy A Volver,” a single that Iglesias experienced unveiled with the Cuban musician Lenier in early February. At first, Vientos assumed the entire factor was a joke. Then he seemed nearer and understood it truly was his teammate singing and dancing about a back garden pool.
“I was like, ‘Bro, you really sound really superior,’” Vientos mentioned, laughing. “I was astonished. I did not know that.”
Take into account Vientos 1 of a shrinking number of. As of Thursday afternoon, “No Voy A Volver” had racked up just about 1.7 million sights on YouTube and a further 137,000 streams on Spotify.
“It was time to do it,” Iglesias explained of going general public with his new music vocation. “I enjoy new music. Which is what I do in my down time in my accommodations, in my travels. I produce tracks. It’s fairly cool. It is a thing exciting that I seriously love accomplishing.”
A veteran shortstop with sections of 11 seasons in the major leagues, Iglesias stated he grew to become interested in music manufacturing soon following defecting from Cuba to the United States as an 18-yr-outdated in 2008. Alongside the way, Iglesias developed a community of artistic buddies, which includes singer Marc Anthony. Those two achieved by way of their mutual agency and grew so close that they now sport matching tattoos on their forearms. (The script reads: “The mystery to acquiring it all is believing you presently do.”)
Iglesias employed a staff to help him film and generate “No Voy A Volver,” and he expects to fall far more music in the close to long term. While Iglesias considers this a critical endeavor, which he plans to carry on soon after retiring from his day task, it does continue being 2nd driving baseball in his brain. Following a tough 2023 year that saw him indication a few different Minimal League contracts and be unveiled from every single of them, Iglesias inked a comparable offer with the Mets this offseason. He’s battling Zack Shorter and other folks for an infield location on the team’s crowded bench.
“I’ve received so much baseball still left in me,” Iglesias claimed. “The Mets noticed that, and which is why I’m below functioning difficult like I’m a rookie.”
Just two yrs ago, Iglesias appeared in 118 video games for the Rockies, batting .292. He hit .373 with the Orioles through the pandemic-shortened 2020 period, boasting a .279 occupation mark in the Majors.
Defensively, the confident-handed Iglesias has by no means created a negative Outs Earlier mentioned Average total in a single year, topping out at +11 in 2019.
And if issues go his way this season, Iglesias eventually plans to merge his two artforms. His concept: a postgame live performance at Citi Industry immediately after the Mets get the Earth Collection, showcasing “No Voy A Volver” and other tunes. He may well even recruit Anthony for the exhibit.
“There’s no live performance if we really don’t get,” Iglesias claimed. “We need 40,000 people today in the stands in order to sing, so we have acquired to make the playoffs.”
