As a teenager growing up in the small town of Tepatitlán de Morelos in the Mexican state of Jalisco, Dodgers pitching prospect Octavio Becerra had a jammed-packed schedule: he went to school in the mornings, trained in the afternoons and spent evenings working. And it wasn’t any job: He was delivering meals and chopping up meat at his uncle’s taquería — a restaurant specializing in tacos.
“I struggled at first because I got tired, but then I could handle it,” says Becerra.
In addition to learning the art of making tacos, Becerra says the experience of juggling school, work and baseball taught his discipline, which paid off in a big way when he signed with the Dodgers in 2019 at the age of 18. At the time, the left-hander was the top-ranked prospect in the Mexican Baseball League, no doubt on account of his 93 mph fastball.
Becerra’s journey from taquero to Dodgers prospect is the subject of a new MLB Originals film, “93 MPH Tacos.” The film can be streamed at mlb.com/originals.
“If I compare meat chopping to pitching, they both require me to look for a way to make things easier,” Becerra says. “It’s not just chopping, but finding a way so that you can get more out of it. Same thing with baseball. I have always tried to find a way to improve, but thinking things over, not just hoping things will work out, but having a plan.”
Becerra, who is unranked in the Dodgers’ system per MLB Pipeline, started the 2022 season with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and appeared in just six games, in which he worked 11 1/3 innings before suffering an injury that kept him off the mound for the rest of the year. Before the injury, he pitched to a 0.79 ERA and struck out 11 batters.
Becerra has a long road ahead of him to make it to the Major Leagues, a dream he says he has not only for himself, but for his family and for the people of his hometown. But the hard work that lies ahead hardly intimidates him.
“The taqueria made me realize that I couldn’t just ask for the things I wanted,” Becerra says. “I had to work for them, earn them.”
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