Best friends for seven years, this FIU baseball trio likely to get another senior season

Second baseman Derek Cartaya, catcher Luis Chavez and left fielder Juan Teixeira — who first became teammates as high school sophomores at Pembroke Pines’ Somerset Academy — are all starters on FIU’s baseball team, and they thought their long run together would end this year as seniors.

But then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Now, thanks to an NCAA ruling that will allow spring-sport seniors an extra season because of COVID-19, Cartaya, Chavez and Teixeira are planning to return to play for FIU in 2021.

It is, in essence, a makeup-call for the lost season of 2020, and FIU is expected to bring virtually everyone back except ace pitcher Logan Allen, who is a potential first-round pick in this year’s draft.

“We’re going to be a deep and mature team,” Cartaya said. “Experience always plays a huge role, and I’m excited to see what we can do.”

Cartaya, Chavez and Teixeira are best friends with much in common even beyond Somerset, FIU and baseball.

All three of them are 22 years old and of Venezuelan ancestry. Cartaya is the only one of the trio born in the U.S. (Hialeah). Chavez arrived in South Florida when he was five, and Teixeira came as a ninth-grader.

Chavez attended Somerset first, since middle school. Cartaya, from Monsignor Pace, and Teixeira, who came over from Cooper City High, transferred in as sophomores.

For the next three years, Somerset — led by that strong Class of 2016 — won 62 games. As seniors, that trio led Somerset to a 24-4 record in a season that ended with a 5-1 loss to Pompano Beach in the regional semifinals.

“That was my best team ever,” said ex-Somerset coach Onel Garcia, who now runs the program at Western. “I’ve never seen chemistry like that before or since. They loved each other.”

After high school, Cartaya signed with coach Mervyl Melendez at Alabama State. But when Melendez resigned and was hired at FIU, Cartaya got his release from Alabama State and joined the Panthers.

Teixeira and Chavez both went the junior-college route. Teixeira played one season at ASA before joining FIU for the 2018 season. Chavez played at Miami Dade and ASA before arriving at FIU for the 2019 season.

Cartaya, who is undersized at 5-5 and 132 pounds, started 26 games as a freshman, hitting just .178. The next three years, however, he hit over .300, including his sophomore season when he started at shortstop and was second on team with a .342 batting average.

Back at second base as a junior, he hit .316 and finished third in Conference USA with 20 steals. He was hitting .367 and batting leadoff when this season was canceled, and he has made 128 career starts.

“He’s an underdog,” Garcia said. “He doesn’t look the part, but I’ve never seen a guy make as much of an impact. I talk about him to all my (high school players). They’re probably tired of hearing about him.”

Chavez, listed at 5-8 and 184 pounds, hit just .174 last year and .156 this season, but he’s a defensive standout.

FIU hitting coach Dax Norris, who was a pro catcher for 11 seasons and was also an All-American at Alabama, is high on Chavez.

“He’s one of the better defensive catchers in the conference,” Norris said. “He’s one of the main reasons why we were off to a good start [at 10-5], his leadership.”

Teixeira, who has started 95 games in three years, has the best tools and size (6-0, 195) of this trio. He hit .345 as a sophomore, .253 as a junior and was off to a blazing start this season when play was stopped, leading Conference USA with a .482 batting average.

“I was really sad for ‘Tex’ that the season stopped because his opposite-field approach was so much better,” Norris said. “He really progressed, wasn’t striking out as much, and he hit a bomb [of a home run] in his last game.”

After that, FIU was on the bus headed to the airport for a weekend road series at Conference USA rival Southern Miss when the call came.

“I was mad. I was sad. I was frustrated,” Teixeira said of the stoppage. “I was having a great year. But the day before that, the NBA season got [postponed], and I knew we were done, too.”

Chavez said he was listening to reggae music on his head phones when Melendez got on the bus to deliver the news.

“When I saw him, I bowed my head because I thought we were going to do our usual team prayer,” Chavez said. “But he said, ‘Boys, we’re not leaving.’ My mouth was wide open. I was shocked.”

Going forward, all three of these players are hoping to get a chance at pro baseball, likely in 2021. But the odds on them getting drafted and/or making the majors are long, which makes it a good thing that all three of them are on track to earn Bachelor degrees this year.

When their playing days are done, Cartaya wants to be a coach, Teixeira plans on working for a pro baseball, basketball or soccer team on the business/marketing side, and Chavez aims to go into physical therapy but only after exploring all his options.

Two other former Somerset players are also on the FIU roster, and both of them are right-handed middle relievers: redshirt freshman JJ Teixeira, who is Juan’s younger brother; and Jose Varela, a junior.

Melendez is happy they are all still a part of FIU baseball, especially the three senior starters.

“The common denominator with them is that they rise to the occasion when games are on the line,” Melendez said. “There’s no situation too big for them.”