Five Hundred Hits, One Photograph

Hermosillo

Isaac Paredes grew up in Hermosillo, Sonora, playing in one of Mexico's toughest Little Leagues on a team called the Juitos. His grandparents raised him alongside his parents, two brothers, and a sister in a modest Hermosillo home. From age eight, his grandmother Gloria Eduviges walked him two to three miles through Hermosillo streets to baseball practice, often resting under palm trees along the way. She kept that routine from eight to eleven. He represented Mexico in the 2014 15U Baseball World Cup and signed with the Cubs in July 2015 for an $800,000 bonus at sixteen. Gloria is the person he credits for his career.

The Road

Two years after he signed, the Cubs sent him to Detroit with Jeimer Candelario. He debuted as a Tiger on August 17, 2020. The stops accumulated — Tampa Bay for three seasons, a return to Chicago in 2024, and then Houston, where he has played third base since 2025. He played for Mexico again at the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Two All-Star teams, 2024 and 2025, sit on his line. He has played 709 major-league games across seven seasons, batting .242 with 113 home runs. On July 19, 2026, in an Astros uniform, Paredes collected his 500th career hit.

The Photograph

When he signed with the Cubs as a teenager, Gloria dug up an old photograph of toddler Isaac dressed in a full Cubs uniform. After the Cubs traded him back to Chicago in 2024, he found the photo again.

Also in 2024, with the Rays, he brought Gloria to a major-league game to watch him play live for the first time, fulfilling a longtime promise.

He is 27, a third baseman for the Houston Astros.

Reporting: MLB.com, Marquee Sports Network, Our Esquina, Sportskeeda, Wikipedia. Career and biographical data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.