 Juan in 1999 | |
 Juan in 2009 | |
| Juan de la Cruz | |
| Portrayed by | Oscar Torre |
| Episode | Stealing Home |
| Status | Arrested |
Juan de la Cruz is a character from "Stealing Home." He is the cousin of Gonzalo Luque.
When Gonzalo was banned from playing baseball in Cuba after he was caught speaking with the American sports agent Jaime Reyes, Juan and several others went along with Gonzalo to defect to the United States but only Gonzalo got political asylum. Juan was sent back to Cuba but he escaped and was given asylum. He ended up working as a construction worker and living with Gonzalo.
The truth came out near the end of the episode. Juan was also a ball player nicknamed "The Cannon" because of his 95 mph fastballs. It was he that Jaime contacted in the first place.
The night before Juan was set to have a try-out, he learned that Gonzalo fired Jaime. This upset him and he proceeded to tell Gonzalo that his pitching arm was broken while he was in prison in Cuba. He hates that he has lost his talent and has to rely on his little cousin's charity. In his anger, Juan hit Gonzalo with a bat, which caused his cousin to go into cardiac arrest. Horrified, Juan tried to drive Gonzalo to a hospital but didn't make it, so he dumped the body in the Badlands. Eddie St. John tried to loot Gonzalo's body but he was scared away by Juan's car.
It wasn't until 2009 that he was arrested for killing his cousin.