Benjamin Hill travels the nation collecting stories about what makes Minor League Baseball unique. This excerpt from his newsletter -- which he reported on from Madison, Ala., on June 19 -- is one of those stories. Read the full newsletter here, and subscribe to his newsletter here.

Victor Mederos, a 23-year-old right-hander, currently occupies a spot on the Los Angeles Angels¡¯ 40-man roster and has spent parts of the past two seasons with the big league club. The Cuban native spent the bulk of the ¡¯23 and ¡¯24 campaigns with the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas, however, and during this time he earned an additional, albeit unofficial, job title: Clubhouse barber.

In this role Mederos performs an essential service, with the added benefit of learning about his teammates via whatever topic of conversation may happen to arise. He has cut the hair of dozens of his teammates and team staff members, prompting clubhouse manager Bubba Hearn to purchase a used barber chair for him to use. That was a crucial pick-up, as Mederos no longer had to bend down to reach the hair of his ¡°customers.¡±

But no matter the accoutrements, or lack thereof, Mederos is committed to the craft. He said that cutting hair is something he learned to do when he was a kid, but it ¡°really started in college.¡±

¡°It was peaceful to me,¡± said Mederos, who started 20 games for the Trash Pandas this season, in addition to time spent with the Angels, High-A Tri-City and Triple-A Salt Lake. ¡°You get to sit in a chair, get a haircut, have a conversation that has nothing to do with baseball and, you know, just be a normal person. We can literally talk about anything you want.¡±

Mederos shares his own life story -- one he categorized as ¡°crazier than most¡± -- willingly and openly, prefacing it with a baseball metaphor: ¡°Life always throws you a curveball, and you just gotta take whatever it gives you, learn from it, build on it, grow from it and just be who you are.¡±

The ¡°curveball¡± in this scenario is the long saga that saw Mederos and his family leave their native Cuba to start a new life in the United States. His father, Victor Sr., left for the U.S. when Mederos was just two months old. He and his older brother, Vitin, stayed in Cuba with his mother, Odalys. Victor Sr. settled in Miami, attained U.S. citizenship, worked all manner of jobs and, five years later, arranged for his family to join him. The plan was for them to travel to Costa Rica and then meet a man who would bring them to the United States.

¡°Mom was a lawyer in Cuba for 22 years, so she was able to get a work visa to go to Costa Rica,¡± he said. ¡°We stayed there for about six months. One day my dad told us we were going to leave. And that¡¯s when the journey began.¡±

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The route, arduous and at times harrowing, took them from Costa Rica to Nicaragua to Honduras to Guatemala to Mexico to, finally, the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. Mederos, age 7, began life anew in Miami and was soon introduced, via a family friend, to the game of baseball.

¡°I fell in love at first sight,¡± he said. ¡°First game I ever played in I had a home run. That¡¯s what hooked me.¡±

After some offensive struggles led Mederos to conclude that he ¡°couldn¡¯t hit anymore,¡± he started working with a pitching coach, Cuban baseball veteran Maels Rodriguez. He drew notice early, committing to the University of Miami as an eighth grader, though, as he put it, ¡°things just didn¡¯t happen for me there.¡±

Mederos eventually transferred to Oklahoma State, where he benefited from the tutelage of legendary pitching coach Rob Walton. The Angels selected him in the sixth round of the 2022 Draft and that season he began his professional career as a member of the High-A Tri-City Dust Devils. Less than a year later he made his Major League debut.

Mederos has now appeared in seven big league games over the past two seasons and, in that time, he also started 40 games for the Trash Pandas. Wherever he ends up in 2025 -- Angel Stadium is obviously the goal -- he¡¯s likely to have his scissors and clippers with him.

¡°I don¡¯t know if I¡¯d want [to cut hair] as a 9-5 job, but it¡¯s definitely something I¡¯ll be driven to do,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve learned how to cut everybody¡¯s hair, whatever styles they want, and we can talk about anything.¡±