John Curtiss
"A 6-foot-5 reliever from Dallas whose baseball career now runs through Guadalajara, not just the majors."
Curtiss now wears No. 76 for the Charros de Jalisco — a number that, in American baseball's informal jersey hierarchy, almost always signals organizational depth rather than star status.
Curtiss's move to Mexico's Liga Mexicana del Pacífico is a useful reminder that pro baseball's talent pipeline doesn't end at the 26-man MLB roster or the U.S. border — a growing number of pitchers extend careers, and stay sharp, in winter leagues most American fans never see.
American baseball media largely stops tracking a player the moment he's off an MLB 40-man roster, which erases an entire second act — competitive winter-league baseball in Mexico — from the public record.
In American baseball, a jersey number in the 70s or 80s isn't decoration — it's roster shorthand for a player fighting for organizational depth rather than a name anyone considers a fixture, which is why Curtiss's No. 76 with the Charros tells an informed reader something a name alone wouldn't.
The Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, where the Charros de Jalisco play, isn't a retirement circuit — it's a winter league with intense local followings across cities like Guadalajara, Culiacán, and Hermosillo, and its champion goes on to compete in the Caribbean Series, a tournament followed obsessively across Latin America and almost invisibly in the U.S.
John Curtiss, born in Dallas on April 5, 1993, made his MLB debut on August 25, 2017, as a hard-throwing right-handed reliever. He is currently listed with the Charros de Jalisco, placing him in Mexico's Pacific League — a well-established, high-level circuit that American coverage rarely follows once a pitcher leaves affiliated MLB rosters.
| Year | Team | G | W–L | ERA | IP | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | ARI | 30 | 3–2 | 3.93 | 36.2 | 24 | 0.93 |
| 2024 | COL | 3 | 0–0 | 15.43 | 2.1 | 1 | 2.57 |
| 2023 | NYM | 15 | 0–0 | 4.58 | 19.2 | 16 | 1.27 |
| Career | — | 124 | 9–4 | 4.03 | 145.1 | 128 | 1.18 |
Source: MLB Stats API · regular season
A Frame Built for the Bullpen
John Curtiss was born in Dallas on April 5, 1993, and grew into a pitcher's proportions: 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, throwing and batting right-handed. It's the build teams look for when they want swing-and-miss stuff out of a bullpen — long levers, a high release point, the kind of frame scouts note before they ever clock a fastball. There's no verified public account of a childhood diamond in North Texas or a coach who discovered him first; what's documented is simpler, and in its way more instructive. A large man who throws hard for a living, whose career has run from the American minor-league system to a major-league mound to, currently, a roster spot with the Charros de Jalisco in Mexico's Pacific League. That itinerary — unremarkable in outline, unusual in geography — says more about the modern working life of a relief pitcher than any single outing could.
The Debut, and the Long Middle
Curtiss debuted in the majors on August 25, 2017. Late-August call-ups are their own small tradition in American baseball — the moment a front office, often shoring up bullpen depth for a stretch run, hands a uniform to a pitcher who has spent the season proving himself in the minors. What follows a first appearance is rarely a straight line. Relief pitching is among the most volatile jobs in professional sports: one outing can end a role, one inning can extend a career, and the same live arm that earns a September call-up can spend the following years moving between organizations, injuries, and leagues. Curtiss's arc — an MLB debut in 2017, a current roster spot with a Mexican Pacific League club — fits that pattern more than it breaks it.
The Liga Mexicana del Pacífico is a competitive, closely followed professional league distinct from Mexico's summer league (LMB). Its season runs during the U.S. offseason, its clubs are civic institutions in their home cities, and its champion represents Mexico in the Caribbean Series — a stage American fans rarely watch but one that carries real weight across the Spanish-speaking baseball world.
No. 76, Read Correctly
With the Charros de Jalisco, Curtiss wears No. 76. In American baseball, jersey numbers carry an informal vocabulary: single digits and teens tend to go to veterans and franchise cornerstones; numbers in the 60s, 70s, and 80s belong to non-roster invitees, prospects, and organizational depth arms — players fighting for space rather than commanding it. A high number doesn't diminish a player, but it does tell an informed reader something about where he sits in a roster's pecking order at a given moment. For readers outside American baseball culture, that shorthand is easy to miss entirely; a number on a jersey functions less like decoration and more like a line on a résumé.
Winter Ball Is Not a Footnote
The Charros de Jalisco compete in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, Mexico's winter league, played roughly from October through January in stadiums across Sinaloa, Sonora, and Jalisco. American fans conditioned to think of the offseason as dead time might read winter ball as a minor stop between affiliated jobs. In Mexico, it functions closer to the opposite: cities build genuine civic identity around these clubs, crowds are loud and consistent, and the league champion advances to the Caribbean Series, a tournament that matters enormously across Latin America and receives a fraction of the American sports-media attention it arguably deserves. A pitcher spending his winter in Guadalajara rather than at home isn't necessarily a player in decline — he may simply be playing in front of a different, and differently passionate, audience. Curtiss's presence on that roster is one small data point in a larger, under-told story: how much of professional baseball's calendar, and how many of its meaningful games, happen entirely outside the frame of a U.S. box score.
In American professional baseball, jersey numbers function as an informal status marker. Low numbers and the teens are typically reserved for established players; numbers in the 60s through 90s usually signal a player on the fringes of a roster — a prospect, a depth arm, or a non-roster invitee. It's a detail American fans absorb unconsciously but rarely explain, and one that can mislead readers unfamiliar with the convention.
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