White Sox prospect Anderson Comas came out as gay in a heartfelt Instagram post on Sunday. The 23-year-old from the Dominican Republic is the third minor leaguer in baseball history to publicly come out, joining former Giants pitcher Solomon Bates and former Brewers first baseman David Denson.
In his post, the 23-year-old Comas said he's "proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community" while noting that his message "may be the most personal thing I ever share."
"I enjoy my work a lot; being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me, so I just wanna say something to those people that say that gay people can not be someone in this life, well look at me I'm gay, and I'm a professional athlete, so that didn't stop me from making my dreams come true," Comas wrote. "I'm doing this cause I wanna be an inspiration for those like me out there fitting for their dreams; please don't listen to those stupid things that people say about us, fight for your dreams, believe in yourself, and go for it."
Hours after Comas' announcement, White Sox assistant general manager Chris Getz congratulated him and lauded the organization for maintaining an inclusive environment.
"Anderson first shared his news with us last year," read a statement from Getz. "And I was very pleased that he was comfortable sharing with us in player development. I also was happy at the reaction across the organization, which, as you would expect, was to support, help and congratulate a teammate."
Comas, who started as an outfielder for the White Sox in 2017, converted to pitcher last season. In his first professional experience on the mound, he recorded a 6.35 ERA with 13 strikeouts and 11 walks over 11 1/3 innings for the rookie-level Arizona White Sox.
