On the night of September 15, in front of 17,434 fans at Toros Mobil Park, Justin Turner lifted his second major championship trophy in six years. First came the 2020 World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s the 2026 Serie del Rey with the Tijuana Toros. He’s not the first to make that journey — but he is the most recent member of a very short list of players who conquered both the Mexican League’s top title and baseball’s biggest prize in the majors.
The Pattern: World Series Champions Who Found a Second Peak in Mexico
On September 17, journalist Antonio Rosique published the complete list. It has four names. But before running through them, it’s worth understanding what the double means. The Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (LMB) Serie del Rey is a long, high-intensity tournament played in some brutally hot ballparks. This is not a comfortable retirement league. The guys who win it earn it.
The Tijuana Toros closed out the 2026 final 4-2 against the Olmecas de Tabasco, with a decisive Game 6 ending 2-0. Gilberto Celestino drove in both runs with a fifth-inning single. Adonis Medina opened with five innings of two-hit ball. And Hernán Pérez, named series MVP, finished the final with a .318 average, one home run, three doubles and five RBI. Turner added a single in the sixth — enough to close his chapter in this championship.
Case by Case: What Each One Did in Both Leagues
Robinson Canó is the most recent and most statistically documented case. He signed with the Diablos Rojos del México in 2024 and put up numbers that stunned the circuit: .431 average, 14 home runs and 77 RBI in just 78 games — enough to win the batting title and the Serie del Rey. He repeated as champion in 2025. All of that came after 17 MLB seasons in which he posted a .301 career average, 2,639 hits, 335 home runs and eight All-Star selections. The LMB wasn’t a quiet exit — it was a second peak.
Fernando Rodney won the 2021 Serie del Rey with those same Tijuana Toros, posting 38 saves and finishing the season with a 1.80 ERA over 30 innings — good enough to be named the circuit’s Reliever of the Year. His World Series ring came with the 2019 Washington Nationals.
Aurelio López — «Señor Smoke» — is the historical anchor of the group. The Diablos Rojos won the Serie del Rey in 1968, and López was part of that. His World Series came later and with a different team: he won it in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers. One of the very few Mexican players to be crowned champion in both leagues.
And then there’s Justin Turner, the freshest name on the list. World champion on October 27, 2020, in Arlington, Texas, when the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-2 in that pandemic bubble World Series. Serie del Rey champion in 2026 at 41 years old, with the Tijuana Toros. The line between those two dates includes several teams, a pandemic and a decision to cross the border and keep competing seriously.
Why the LMB Has Become a Destination for Former World Champions
Rosique’s list says something beyond the names themselves: the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol has spent decades attracting proven, high-caliber talent. The Diablos Rojos del México are the most decorated franchise in league history with 18 titles, and their back-to-back championships in 2024 and 2025 with Canó as a central piece aren’t an anomaly — they’re the continuation of a pattern where veterans with résumés find genuinely competitive conditions in Mexico.
The Tijuana Toros, meanwhile, now have three titles (2017, 2021 and 2026) and have established themselves as the most successful franchise of the LMB’s modern era. The championship on September 15 — the night of Mexican Independence — isn’t just the most recent one. It’s the one that adds Justin Turner’s name to a list that already had Canó, Rodney and López on it. A bridge between two leagues that, with every Serie del Rey, gets a little more concrete.
