Cuba’s impressive baseball talent would no longer have to risk defection and human trafficking to play for US clubs under a deal announced on Wednesday that capped more than three years of negotiations.
The MLB, its players’ union and the Cuban Baseball Federation made a groundbreaking agreement that is to allow players from the nation sign with North American teams, despite political strain between the US and Cuban governments.
The deal, which lasts through October 2021 unless extended by mutual agreement, is to install a posting system similar to those used by MLB with Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese leagues when players want to jump to the MLB.
Photo: Reuters
For decades, Cuban officials have sought to keep players at home. Players have been forced to defect, often making deals with shady characters and forced into human trafficking to escape Cuba.
“Words cannot fully express my heartfelt joy and excitement,” said Cuban-born Chicago White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, who defected in 2013. “Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of past Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us.”
An example of the lengths Cuban players will go to reach MLB is Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, who after multiple failed attempts arranged to be taken to Mexico by a drug cartel that kept him hostage until they were paid US$250,000 for his release.
Under the agreement, the Cuban federation must release all players who are at least age 25 with six years of experience and may also release younger talent.
Players can negotiate and sign with major league teams without leaving Cuba, while the federation would collect a release fee for any players signed by MLB clubs.
Players would have standard US work visas allowing players and their families to travel and return to Cuba if they choose. Players would keep the money they earn, rather than seeing much of it go to Cuban officials as under past deals for Cuban talent in Asian leagues.
The Cuban version of the announcement emphasized that it would allow Cubans to play “without being compelled to break their ties of any kind with their country” and allows for Cubans who “migrated to third countries with the purpose of trying to reach the major leagues” to be “reinserted in the Cuban national competitive system.”
However, it also said there would be no change for those who defected to reach the MLB.
US Senator Patrick Leahy praised the deal as a way to smooth US-Cuba relations.
“Baseball has always been a bridge between our two nations,” Leahy said. “Like countless other Americans, I look forward to seeing world-class Cuban players compete in the United States.”
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