TORONTO — There is a small tattoo on the inside of Ehire Adrianza’s left wrist that serves as a reminder of home. The tattoo, which he got three years ago, depicts the outline of Venezuela.

Adrianza hasn’t been home in three years, as Venezuela is being ravaged by humanitarian and political crises.

Native Venezuelans Adrianza, Willians Astudillo, Martin Perez and Marwin Gonzalez and assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez show up for work every day and pour their focus into Twins baseball. But thoughts of their friends, family and countrymen are never far away.

Crime rates have risen and millions have fled the country as food and medicine scarcities cause citizens to seek safety elsewhere. Efforts to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office have so far been unsuccessful as civil unrest grows. His opponents in the National Assembly appointed Juan Guaido as acting president in January, contesting Maduro’s leadership.

“We talk about it every day,” Hernandez said. “Every 10 minutes.”

Because it’s impossible not to.

“It’s always in the back of your mind,” Astudillo said through an interpreter. “Every morning you wake up, you don’t know what information you’re going to receive or what’s going on, and it’s nerve-wracking to know that they’re all going through that and at times I just want to do more, but I obviously can’t because I’m here doing my job.”

‘WE DON’T HAVE A FUTURE’

There are so many things they want Americans to know but if there were just one, it’s that the Venezuelan people need help.

“All the Venezuelan people, you know, they don’t have — I’m going to include myself — we don’t have any future down there, you know?” Perez said. “Because nothing’s worked. Nothing, for everything. I mean, it’s hard to find food (and) medicine.”

Just last week, Hernandez said, in his family’s neighborhood a boy died because he didn’t have access to medication he needed. The image of children rummaging through trash for scraps of food is an ingrained memory one that several players mentioned.

The current monthly minimum wage was recently raised to about 18,000 bolivars a month. That’s about $6.70, and a bottle of water could cost between $7 and $10, Hernandez said. An apple, Adrianza estimated, might cost $10.

“It’s impossible to buy food, it’s impossible to buy medicine because it’s too expensive,” Adrianza said.

Their ticket out — baseball — has put them in a position to help their families, but it’s difficult. In trying to send food, Adrianza has had packages intercepted and kept by customs officials. They, too, are hungry.

“Seeing the kids picking up the food from the garbage cans and elderly people marching in order to get their benefits and retirement money and things like that, it’s something that people might not realize because it’s just only happening there, but we as Venezuelans, we feel it,” Astudillo said.

STAY OR GO?

Tragedy rocked the baseball world last December when former major league players Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo were killed in a car crash as they returned from a winter league game in Venezuela. They crashed after trying to avoid an object placed or thrown on the road. The idea is to make drivers stop, then rob them.

This is not uncommon.

Last year, Hernandez was coaching winter ball when someone threw a rock that cracked the windshield of the team bus. They were lucky; they had four policemen escorting them to thwart off danger.

“They don’t really care if you crash and you die or whatever, they just want to rob you because they need to eat,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez’s family told him that if he could stay in the U.S. this offseason, he should. He’s thinking about spending his offseason in Florida. There is constant danger, especially for those with money.

Adrianza would like to return home this offseason to play winter ball. He wants to see his family. He wants to play in front of his family. Plus, it would benefit his career, he thinks, to go to Venezuela and face good pitching there.

But he is scared.

“Kidnapping is a big thing for us because when I go back to Venezuela, it’s like I’m a big star,” Adrianza said. “They think because I’m in the big leagues, I am a millionaire … that you are an easy target for them.”

Gonzalez, who declined comment for this story through a team spokesman, spends his offseason in Houston. Astudillo returns so he can spend time with his daughter, who lives there. Perez does, too.

It is home, after all.

“I got all my family there. That’s where I do my preparation before I come to spring training. I have a ranch. I’ve got everything down there. And I have a foundation, too,” Perez said. “Every time I go back down there, I do a lot of stuff with the foundation to help people, help the kids, surgeries or any medicine that you need. I just try to help people.”

FOCUS ON THE FIELD

Manager Rocco Baldelli is well aware that four of his players and a member of his coaching staff are affected by this every day. He is sensitive to their situation. And he listens, there if they want to talk about it. But even Baldelli, lauded for his ability to connect with players, cannot completely comprehend the situation.

“They have to deal with things and think about things that the rest of us don’t have to worry about, think about,” he said. “It doesn’t seem fair in any way that anyone should be worrying about this. When the people that you love are thousands of miles away and you’re here, that’s a challenge that I couldn’t relate to.”

The players know they have a job to do and do their best to focus, and produce on the field. That in itself is difficult. Add the turmoil affecting their personal lives and it’s even harder.

“Sometimes you think (so) much … that sometimes you don’t concentrate here. That’s affecting most of the Venezuelan players here,” Adrianza said. “…We’re trying to help as much as we can, to think they’re OK. But at the same time, you get so many text messages from your family over there like, ‘This is not life. This is not the way we should live.’ ”

HOPE FOR FREEDOM

During his May 1 start against Houston at Target Field, Perez went to the mound and wrote “Venezuela libre” in the dirt. He then threw eight shutout innings in a game that he dedicated to his home country.

“I’m going to do it every time when I go to the mound and pitch,” Perez said. “I’m going to write ‘Venezuela free,’ because we need to be free.”

There is hope. Hope for change. Hope for a better future. And the Venezuelan Twins are clinging to it.

“I’m very hopeful because I think it’s overdue,” Astudillo said. “His time (Maduro) is done and he needs to get out of there and let other people let the country blossom again.”

If and when that time comes, it will still take a long time to rebuild the country to what it was, Adrianza said. But he, too, is hopeful that change will come soon.

For now, Astudillo said he and his Venezuelan teammates talk about what they can do to help, how they can better support the people. Eventually, he said, they will come up with a more specific plan.

Talking publicly and shining more light on the situation, they think, helps too.

“I care about people down there. They need help,” Perez said. “…We need Venezuela free, and we’re close.”