Domingo Leyba


Domingo Junior Leyba Santana is a Dominican professional baseball infielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball.

Career

Detroit Tigers

Leyba was signed by the Detroit Tigers as an international free agent in July 2012. He made his professional debut in 2013 with the Dominican Summer League Tigers and spent the whole season there where he led the league with a.348 batting average in 57 games. He spent 2014 with the Connecticut Tigers and West Michigan Whitecaps, hitting.323 with two home runs and 24 RBIs in 67 games.

Arizona Diamondbacks

On December 5, 2014, the Tigers traded Leyba and Robbie Ray to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a three-team trade, with the Diamondbacks sending Didi Gregorius to the New York Yankees and the Yankees sending Shane Greene to the Tigers. He spent 2015 with the Visalia Rawhide where he batted.237 with two home runs and 43 RBIs in 124 games and 2016 with Visalia and the Mobile BayBears where he slashed.296/.355/.429 with ten home runs and 60 RBIs in 130 games.
The Diamondbacks added him to their 40-man roster after the 2016 season. In 2017, he played in only 23 games due to injury. He spent all of 2018 with the Jackson Generals, batting.269 with five home runs and 30 RBIs in 86 games. He began 2019 with the Reno Aces.
On June 22, 2019, he was called up to the major leagues for the first time. He made his that debut that night, recording a pinch-hit single off of Mark Melancon of the San Francisco Giants. Leyba played in 21 major league games in 2019, mainly as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement. He collected a total of seven hits, including two doubles and a triple, batting.280.
On March 6, 2020, Leyba was suspended for the first 80 games of the 2020 season for testing positive for boldenone. Due to Major League Baseball shortening the season to 60 games because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leyba was essentially ruled out for the entire year.