LMP: Former UCLA Star Eric Filia Returns to Los Mochis; The Brothers Groshans Heading to Nayarit

One of the most fearsome hitters in winter baseball is returning to the Caneros de Los Mochis.

Eric Filia, a key part of UCLA's run to the NCAA Championship in 2013, is headed back to Sinaloa for his fourth season with the Caneros, where he batted .363/.482/.435 in 63 games last season on his way to the Liga Mexicana del Pacifico batting title. In 193 career LMP games with Los Mochis, Filia has batted .331 with 12 homers and 112 RBIs over three seasons.

“I feel great, you know I’m very excited, I love Los Mochis, knowing that I can come back here, I’m very grateful, I love the city and the fans,” Filia said in a press release on the LMP website. The batting title, he said, "was a goal for me. I feel very grateful and humbled to be able to achieve that, but I would trade a batting championship for a league championship so, you know, Go Cañeros!"

He spent parts of the last two summers playing for Los Mochis manager Chris Coste in the American Association with the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks, batting .351/.434/.448 in 35 games.

Filia has played a total of seven winter ball seasons, four in the Dominican Republic's LIDOM, where he's played two seasons with the Estrellas Orientales and one each with the Aguilas Cibaenas and Gigantes del Cibao. In 305 total winter ball games, he's slashed .304/.407/.400 with 15 homers and 137 RBIs.

American Association All-Star MVP To Nayarit - Jaxx Groshans, who won the 2026 American Association All-Star Game MVP Award, is expected to join the Jaguares de Nayarit on Sept. 30.

Groshans, a fifth-round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2019, had contemplated retirement before playing winter ball in China last year. The experience rejuvenated him, and he joined the AA's Chicago Dogs for 2026, where he had a career year, batting .301/.384/.550 with 23 homers and 76 RBIs in 94 games.

"I wanted to go play winter ball to get some at-bats and kind of just get the feel back. Had a really good time there," Groshans told World Baseball Network after the American Association All-Star Game in Lincoln, Nebraska, in July. "And you know, that I’m not going to say it reignited my love for the game because it’s been there in droves, you know, the last couple years, but it definitely gave me the motivation I needed to say this isn’t the end, and I know that I have more in the tank, and I know God’s got a plan for me, and I’m not done yet.”

He'll have a familiar face joining him in Nayarit in his brother Jordan later this week.

Jordan Groshans appeared in 17 Major League games for Miami in 2022, batting .262/.308/.311 with a homer and two RBIs in 65 plate appearances. He's since played at the Double-A and Triple-A levels in four different MLB organizations, and hit .282/.344/.588 with 30 homers and 81 RBIs for Double-A Columbus (Georgia) in the Atlanta Braves organization this past summer.