SAN DIEGO — Edgardo Henriquez’s family is safe. His hometown of Cumana, Venezuela is a couple hundred miles east of Caracas and La Guaira, where two powerful earthquakes struck on Wednesday. But the Dodgers relief pitcher is still concerned about his countrymen.
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“We’re all Venezuelans,” he said in Spanish. “We all feel affected by it.”
That is particularly true for Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas, whose wife and two children are in Venezuela and were in Caracas when the quakes, measuring magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5, struck.
“I feel selfish saying everything is okay. Because everything is okay with my family doesn’t mean everything is okay with the country,” Rojas said. “We’re going through really tough moments right now. I just wish and hope everyone will pray for us because it’s devastating seeing how many families have lost everything.
“It’s really tough because I have a pretty close connection to the city where a lot of the things are happening right now which is La Guaira. I played in that city for so many years. It’s really tough to see teammates of mine and players that I played with at some point in my career to lose family members, to lose kids. It’s really devastating. It’s been really hard for me to go sleep at night.”
Rojas’ wife was in Caracas to renew her passport. They were applying for their son and daughter to become Venezuelan citizens because both were born in the United States. Miguel has been able to speak with them by phone daily.
“They’re in a place where they have power, they have connection, they have everything we need to stay in contact and we talk every day. But I still really feel that I’m so far from them right now,” he said.
“Literally two blocks away from where my family was two buildings collapsed, the whole building. And the building where my family was was shaking really bad and they had to go away from that place to stay someplace else that night. They were lucky to get away before everything else happened and the building stayed in some kind of good shape to go down the stairs and get out of there. I’m lucky to be honest with you guys. I’m really lucky to have my family still alive and with me. I’m not taking this for granted.”
The MLB players’ union announced a donation of $100,000 to Venezuelan relief efforts on Friday and teams wore “VZ” on their caps during games to show support.
“It means a lot because it brings awareness,” Rojas said. “We are on one of the biggest stages in sports and I really appreciate what the Dodgers do to support us.
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“It’s a little hard to explain how can I help from here. But I just want to be able to put a message out there to keep us on their minds because these are really difficult moments. It’s not just what happens now. It’s what’s going to happen in the future. It’s going to take a long time for people to recover.”
COMEBACK TRAILS
Blake Snell threw a 15-pitch bullpen session in Los Angeles on Friday, all fastballs under the watchful eye of Tyson Ross, a special assistant in player development and a former major league pitcher.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts dismissed the idea that Snell could return before the All-Star break, but Edwin Diaz also threw a bullpen session on Friday and could return sooner since he is a reliever and doesn’t have to build up beyond one inning.
Meanwhile, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Oklahoma City and has hit a home run in each of his first three games. Hernandez is on track to return from his hamstring injury and rejoin the Dodgers next week.
Catcher Will Smith, however, remains in limbo. Roberts said Smith is “feeling better day-by-day” but he has not started any baseball activities, leaving the timetable for his return unclear.
Smith has not played since June 5 with a neck injury that he described as “an inflamed disc.”
“I think it’s concerning in the sense that it’s a lot longer than we’d expected,” Roberts said. “It’s not concerning because we don’t think it’s a long-term situation.”
UP NEXT
Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto 7-5, 2.65) at Padres (RHP Randy Vasquez, 6-5, 4.17), Saturday, 5:40 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
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