Two veteran managers have found new landing spots in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol for 2027.
The Dorados de Chihuahua, who have yet to make the playoffs since returning to the LMB in 2024, have named minor league veteran Tony DeFrancesco manager for 2027, while their expansion mates, the Conspiradores de Queretaro, have named Mexican Baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Vizcarra as their manager for next season.
DeFrancesco, 63, managed the Houston Astros over the final 41 games of the 2012 season, going 16-25. The bulk of his success as a manager came at the Triple-A level, where the Suffern, N.Y.-native served as a skipper for 16 seasons in the Oakland A's, Houston Astros, and New York Mets organizations.
In 2003, his first season managing at Triple-A, DeFrancesco led the Sacramento River Cats to a 92-52 regular season record, the Pacific Coast League title, and earned The Sporting News Minor League Manager of the Year Award. He led Sacramento to Pacific Coast League titles in 2004 and 2007 and the Triple-A National Championship in 2007. With Fresno in 2015, the team won both the Pacific Coast League and National Championships in DeFrancesco's first season.
Vizcarra, a legend in Mexican baseball, has won four championships in the LMB, the first two coming with the Tigres de Quintana Roo in 2013 and 2015 and the latter pair with the Leones de Yucatán in 2018 and 2022, and won the LMB's Manager of the Year award in 2018 with the Saraperos de Saltillo and in 2022 with Yucatan.
In the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico, Vizcarra managed the Aguilas de Mexicali to the championship in 2016-17 and the Charros de Jalisco to the title in 2017-18 and 2021-22. After starting the season with the Tomateros de Culiacan with middling results, he was fired, but then took over Mexicali again last Christmas and will again lead the Aguilas this coming winter.
Vizcarra, 58, was inducted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 2023 after a playing career that lasted from 1986 to 2008 in both the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol and the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico.
More Games! Replay? Expansion? - Addressing the media at the 2026 Serie del Rey, LMB President Horacio de la Vega said that the league might expand the schedule for 2027.
In 2019, the LMB played a 120-game schedule, but cut the number of games down when the league returned to action in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic, playing 90 games in 2022 and 2023 before going to 93 games for the last three regular seasons.
De la Vega said that the league is looking to add as many as five games, and potentially add more interdivisional matchups where teams from the Zona Norte and Zona Sur would face off in the 2027 schedule.
A decision would likely be reached at the league meetings in November.
The league president noted that further expansion is not on the horizon for the LMB, which added teams in Chihuahua and Queretaro for the 2024 season and minted an expansion franchise in Durango after the Generales de Durango folded amid the collapse of their owner's businesses.
“We are analyzing markets where we have done very well. We are also analyzing markets where we haven't done so well, we have to acknowledge that,” de la Vega said.