Dodgers' Eliezer Alfonzo to start after his sister and stepmother died in Venezuela

Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times on Jul 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

LOS ANGELES — It’ll be the culmination of nine minor-league seasons. But Eliezer Alfonzo‘s major-league debut on Sunday could not include his family watching from Dodger Stadium.

Alfonzo’s younger sister, Eliana, and stepmother, Patricia, have been missing since last month when earthquakes caused widespread devastation in his home country of Venezuela.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confirmed reports Alfonzo’s missing family members had died.

”Don’t really know what to say about it outside of my heart goes out to him and his family,” Roberts said before the team played the San Diego Padres. “He’s in [the lineup.] He’s going to play today, but obviously it’s heavy hearts. I don’t want to really go too far because I’ll get emotional, so I don’t know. I know it’s tough, very tough.”

Dodgers veteran Miguel Rojas made a similar difficult decision earlier this season, playing immediately after his father died.

On Saturday looking ahead, Alfonzo explained the difficulty his family faced waiting for news.

“I’ve been trying to support my dad a lot, every day talking to him, trying to be with him,” Alfonzo said of the elder Eliezer Alfonzo, a retired major-league catcher. “It’s a little tough from here because I would like to be there with him, supporting him every day.”

His father, of course, would love to be in attendance for his son’s debut. He told him as much when he heard the Dodgers were calling him up.

The Dodgers switched their backup catchers Saturday, optioning Chuckie Robinson. They saw an opportunity to give Alfonzo some runway behind Dalton Rushing, with starting catcher Will Smith’s stay on the injured list expected to extend through the All-Star break.

The elder Eliezer Alfonzo, however, was doing whatever he could to locate his wife and daughter. Their dog was found alive, which gave the younger Eliezer Alfonzo hope.

“We’ve just gotta stay together as a family, as a country,” Alfonzo said. “Because I feel like we’re a beautiful country, we’re a really beautiful people over there. It’s not just about my family, it’s all families that have lost people already.”

Alfonzo’s locker in the clubhouse is next to countryman Rojas’ stall. Rojas’ wife, Mariana, and their two children were in Venezuela, planning to renew Mariana’s passport and seek Venezuelan citizenship for their children, when the earthquakes hit. They managed to stay safe and have returned to the U.S.

“I just want to be here for him,” Rojas said. “At the end of the day, that’s the best thing I can do for him, is being a good teammate and being a friend for him. Because I know there’s going to be ups and downs. He’s going to have a lot of time to be caught [up] in baseball, and that’s going to probably take his mind away from stuff. But sometimes he’s probably going to feel weak, and he’s going to start thinking about his family. So I’m going to be here, I’m right next to him. And that’s what I told him.”

Rojas, who played against the elder Eliezer Alfonzo for years in Venezuela, reached out Saturday morning and promised him he’d save the ball from his son’s first major-league hit.

____