CLEVELAND -- A native of the Dominican Republic who has spent the better part of the last nine years in the San Diego Padres organization, there's no reason for Franmil Reyes to already be familiar with Cleveland.
And yet, when asked what he thought about his new home, the Indians' new designated hitter revealed one of the most important moments of his life occurred in Northeast Ohio.
"It feels great," Reyes said of being dealt to Cleveland ahead of Wednesday's MLB Trade Deadline. "Something that you guys don't know is that I met my wife here."
As Reyes explained, his wife, Marian Melendez, is a native of Puerto Rico whose mother is from his hometown of Palenque in the Dominican Republic. Marian and her mother moved to Cleveland in time to catch a Lake County Captains game in 2015, in which the Indians' Class-A affiliate was facing the Fort Wayne Tincaps, who then featured a 19-year-old power hitter still three years away from making his Major League debut.
"She went to one of my games," Reyes said. "That's where I met her."
A year later, the couple married and Reyes' baseball journey would take them from Fort Wayne to Lake Elsinore (California), San Antonio, El Paso and eventually, San Diego, where he made his big league debut in 2018.
Yet despite currently being in the midst of a breakout season in which he has hit 27 home runs through 99 games, the Padres still opted to trade the now-24-year-old to the Indians as a part of a three-team deal also involving the Cincinnati Reds just ahead of Wednesday's Trade Deadline.
Still under team control for the next five seasons, it appears Reyes will be a mainstay of the Indians' organization for the foreseeable future. And considering his previous experience in the city, that's just fine by him.
"When I got the news [of the trade], that's the first thing I told her," Reyes said. "I was like, 'It's crazy. We're back where we started.'
"Cleveland is really special for me. I knew I'm going to have a lot of love in this city."
In addition to his 27 home runs, the 6-foot-5, 275-pound Reyes has compiled a .255 batting average (.849 OPS) and 46 RBIs this season. He'll be in the lineup batting sixth and playing designated hitter for the Indians when they face the Houston Astros at 7:10 p.m. on Thursday night.