Cuba Allows Some Major Leaguers on World Baseball Classic Team

“Everyone is leaving,” said Leonys Martín, a 35-year-old outfielder in the Seattle Mariners organization who defected in 2010. “There aren’t players over there.”

Each time the W.B.C. came around, Cuban players who defected were saddened that they couldn’t participate. So last year, a group of those players formed the Association of Cuban Professional Baseball Players, with the goal of assembling the best team of Cuban talent all over the world. The group swelled to 170 members spanning the major and minor leagues and other foreign professional leagues.

Despite a public campaign, the association didn’t succeed — even in securing, at the very least, exhibition games. The reason: The W.B.C., although operated as a joint venture between M.L.B. and the league’s players’ union, is sanctioned by the W.B.S.C., the sport’s global governing body. And according to the confederation’s rules, only recognized national federations can select their national teams.

As the national federation blasted the Cuban players’ association last year, accusing it of having political objectives and trying to usurp its legitimate place, the federation also expressed a further softening stance on defected players. The federation didn’t respond to requests for comment, but its president, Juan Reinaldo Perez Pardo, said in a statement in April that he wanted to continue his discussions with players “who love Cuban baseball.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/sports/baseball/cuba-world-baseball-classic.html