In about 17 months, Raisel Iglesias has gone from Cuban defector to holding a place on the Cincinnati Reds' roster.
The 25-year-old right-hander will become the first player in five years to make his major league debut without having appeared in the minors as he starts against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday.
The Reds won out for Iglesias' services after he left Cuba in November 2013 and signed him to a seven-year deal in June. Mainly a reliever in three seasons in his native country's top league and at the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Cincinnati used him out of the bullpen in his first three appearances in spring training before giving him three starts.
Iglesias went 0-2 with a 5.58 ERA in those last three games in Arizona and 0-3 with a 3.68 ERA overall. He did have a promising strikeout rate with 14 in 14 2-3 innings and issued five walks.
"How much can he handle as far as the workload goes? Long-term, we see him as a starting pitcher," manager Bryan Price said in spring training. "The question is do we feel comfortable giving him enough innings to be a starter in our rotation all season long."
Iglesias is set to become the first player to play in the majors without stopping in the minor leagues since current Reds teammate Mike Leake in 2010, and he'll try to help Cincinnati bounce back from its first loss of the season.
The Reds (4-1) used late heroics in each of their four victories, two in walk-off style, but couldn't rally Saturday and lost 4-1 to the Cardinals.
Matt Adams hit a go-ahead solo homer in the fourth inning for St. Louis (2-2), which snapped a four-game skid in Cincinnati. Adams and Yadier Molina each went 2 for 4 with an RBI after going a combined 0 for 19 with nine strikeouts through the first three games.
Todd Frazier hit his third homer for Cincinnati. Joey Votto could only manage a single after going deep three times in the previous two games.
Carlos Martinez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) will try to send the Cardinals to another victory in his ninth major league start and 80th appearance.
Martinez, who got the No. 5 spot in the rotation with Jaime Garcia on the disabled list, has gone 2-2 with a 4.86 ERA as a starter with seven of those outings last season.
He went 2-4 with a 4.03 ERA in 57 total appearances in his second major league season and came out of the bullpen for last Sunday's season opener, tossing one inning in a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs.
"I'm very happy for the opportunity," Martinez said through an interpreter. "I'm going to try to be more efficient with my pitches and throw less pitches per inning so I can go deeper into games.
"(Being in the bullpen) helped me a lot mentally because when you're in the bullpen you have to be ready to pitch."
Martinez has faced the Reds in 11 games - all in relief - and has gone 2-1 with a 2.87 ERA. Frazier has struck out in four of his six at-bats against him.
