{"id":761138,"date":"2026-06-26T08:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761138\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:04:10","slug":"ex-mets-pitcher-jenrry-mejia-narrowly-escapes-death-as-venezuela-earthquake-strikes-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/761138\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia narrowly escapes death as Venezuela earthquake strikes hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia credited \u201cdivine intervention\u201d for saving his life when his elevator brought him to the wrong floor inside his Venezuelan hotel moments before the building collapsed during an earthquake<\/a> that left over 200 people dead.<\/p>\n

Mejia, 36, had just wrapped up his gym session and was heading back to his room as the powerful quakes struck the Caracas region 39 seconds apart, the pitcher told Dominican sports radio show Ma\u00f1ana Deportiva<\/a>, according to Dominican newspaper Diario Libre.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Mejia boarded an elevator to return to his hotel room, but he was instead brought to the building\u2019s ground floor and main exit when another person requested the lift.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the\u00a0gym\u00a0area. And at that moment, I took the\u00a0elevator\u00a0to leave,\u201d Mejia said. \u201cIn fact, I had pressed\u00a0number six, which was where my floor was. But \u2026 I think it was\u00a0God\u00a0because instead of going up, it went down to the basement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers search through rubble for victims after a building collapsed during the powerful earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, on June 25, 2026. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mejia called it an act of \u201cdivine intervention\u201d that brought him to the bottom floor and out of the hotel, 40 seconds before it crumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe door opened directly into the\u00a0lobby. That\u2019s when I came out and\u00a0the building started to collapse,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mejia, who pitches for La Guaira Delfines of the Venezuelan Major League, says he helped an elderly man out of the hotel, and believes they were the only two who survived the deadly destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the\u00a0agility\u00a0I have, I helped an elderly gentleman. I was able\u00a0to drag\u00a0him away, take him with me,\u201d he told the station. \u201cI think only he and I (came out alive), the others are still there,\u00a0trapped\u00a0under the\u00a0rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenrry Mejia pitches for the New York Mets during a game against the Cincinnati Reds on April 4, 2014. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Workers remove a person from the debris during search and rescue efforts in La Guaira on June 25, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The city of La Guaira, located 15 miles north of the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, was the hardest-hit area in the South American country during the earthquake.<\/p>\n

The magnitude-7.2 quake<\/a> struck roughly 100 miles west of Caracas\u00a0near San Felipe at 6 p.m. Wednesday,\u00a0before an even bigger 7.5-magnitude temblor\u00a0hit the town of Yumare, 27 miles away, 39 seconds later, according to the US Geological Survey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The death toll rose to at least 235 people Thursday night. Another 1,520 people have been reported injured.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the latest on the Venezuela earthquakes<\/p>\n

Mejia had been staying in the Venezuelan city of La Guaira,<\/a> one of the hardest areas, where an estimated 70,000 families in the coastal state were affected by the deadly quake.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has become a disaster zone,\u201d acting President Delcy Rodriguez said as rescue efforts comb through the many debris fields of collapsed buildings.<\/p>\n

Mejia revealed he lost all of his possessions, including his passport and couldn\u2019t fly home to the Dominican Republic because all flights had been suspended, according to El Nuevo Diario.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rescuers climb through rubble after a building collapsed from the twin earthquakes in La Guaira, Venezuela, on June 25, 2026. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A show with blood is left on the street in front of destroyed buildings in La Guaira, Venezuela. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The ex-Mets closer pitched in Queens for his entire five-year MLB career from 2010 to 2015.<\/p>\n

Mejia was banned for life by the league<\/a> for failing his third drug test when he tested positive for the anabolic steroid, Boldenone, in February 2016.<\/p>\n

Mejia was given a discretionary reinstatement from Commissioner Rob Manfred\u00a0after he served the minimum two-year ban.<\/p>\n

He briefly signed with the Red Sox on a minor league contract, making appearances across the team\u2019s entire farm system during the 2019 season before playing several years with multiple teams in the Mexican League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia credited \u201cdivine intervention\u201d for saving his life when his elevator brought him to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,43179,591,1830,176542,11298,85,22474,1346],"class_list":["post-761138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-earthquakes","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-mets","tag-pitchers","tag-south-america","tag-sports","tag-venezuela","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}