Yaisel Sierra


Yaisel Sierra Pérez is a Cuban professional baseball pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

Career

Cuban career

Sierra played for Holguín and Sancti Spíritus in the Cuban National Series. He won with his national team, the gold medal of the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico.
In April 2015, Sierra defected from Cuba to the United States to pursue a Major League Baseball career. Per reports on December 28, 2015, MLB cleared him as an unrestricted free agent eligible to sign with any team.
During a tryout in Florida in late 2015, Hudson Belinksky of Baseball America opined that Sierra appeared "extremely polished" with a "clean arm action," easily repeating "his moderate stride... through release,... consistently landing online and hitting his spots down in the strike zone." He threw a fastball in the mid 90s miles per hour and a slider.

Los Angeles Dodgers

On February 21, 2016, Sierra signed a six-year, $30 million, contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was assigned to the Advanced-Class A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, and was outrighted off the 40-man roster on July 3. In 20 games (13 starts for the Quakes and 10 relief appearances for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, he was 6–7 with a 5.89 ERA, 86 strikeouts and 30 walks.
Sierra began the 2017 season with Tulsa and was promoted at mid-season to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers. Between the two teams, he was 5–1 with a 3.04 ERA in 39 relief appearances.
He was assigned to AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers and was placed on the 7-day IL to start the 2019 season.