'Truly historic milestone': Pro baseball team from Mexico moving to Tucson

Tucson is about to become the home of a professional baseball franchise for the first time in over a decade.

Mayos de Navojoa, a member of the Mexican Pacific Winter League, are moving to Tucson, league and team officials announced Tuesday.

The Mexican Pacific Winter League — also known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, or LAMP — consists of 10 teams. They play a 68-game schedule from mid-October through late January.

The Mayos are expected to be rebranded and renamed. They will play their games at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, starting this fall.

“We’re going with a new name,” Victor Cuevas, president of the Mayos, said during a news conference Tuesday. “One dynamic we will be managing in Tucson is that, due to time and everything, we will be involving the fans in choosing the name of their new team. We’ll play from the beginning as the Tucson (Professional) Baseball Team.”

The Mayos have played in Tucson in recent years as part of the Mexican Baseball Fiesta at Kino Stadium. The Fiesta has been one of several efforts to bring pro baseball back to Tucson, with a franchise relocation being the ultimate goal.

This year’s Fiesta is slated for Oct. 2-5. The Tucson franchise will begin regular-season play shortly after, with its first home games expected to be played later in October.

Although contracts are still being finalized, Pima County posted a memorandum announcing the move.

“The team from Navojoa will play the 2025 season at the Kino Sports Complex Veterans Memorial Stadium,” County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote. “This will include 34 home games at KSC in the regular season from October to December, with the potential for playoff games in January.

“This is truly a historic milestone for Pima County, the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico and the team from Navojoa, which will be branded with a new Tucson name and mascot with involvement of local residents and fans. Having this professional Liga Mexicana del Pacífico team at the Kino Sports Complex means our community will be welcoming the other nine teams and their fans during scheduled season matchups to stay, dine, shop and entertain in Tucson and Pima County.

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“We are endlessly grateful to the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico and the Cuevas family team ownership for selecting Pima County to be their home for the 2025 season.”

The initial agreement is for only one year because it had to be expedited. Tucson officials are hopeful it will evolve into a multiyear arrangement.

“We have an incredible opportunity to prove once again that professional baseball belongs in Tucson,” said Blake Eager, executive director of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism & Film Authority.

Tucson was last home to a pro baseball franchise in 2013, the final season the Triple-A Tucson Sidewinders played here. The Tucson Saguaros, a semi-professional independent-league team, have played at Kino and other area fields since 2016.

Kino underwent several upgrades, including new sod and a new scoreboard, before it hosted one of the World Baseball Classic qualifiers this past spring. Local officials viewed that event as an opportunity to prove that the stadium was ready to become the home of a franchise.

Tucson previously served as the spring-training home for multiple MLB franchises. The last two to play here were the Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, who began playing in a new facility in Phoenix in 2011.

The Mayos have played in Navojoa in the Mexican state of Sonora since the 1950s. Financial issues forced the franchise to relocate and become LAMP’s first U.S.-based team.

“It’s a drastic decision. It pains me,” Cuevas said. “There are challenges, there are changes and there are necessities.”

A media event to officially announce the franchise relocation is expected to be held in June.