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Cuban “big leaguers” CAN PLAY FOR THEIR COUNTRY,
CONFIRMED MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred
March 18, 2022
There has been a lot of controversy in the last week since the formulation of the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players, especially for its interest in developing an independent team not associated with the Cuban Baseball Federation with a view of playing in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
Right now there are divisions with respect to Cuba's team that will participate in the WBC March 2023.
There are those who embrace the new idea of the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players (for only those players who reside outside of Cuba).
Then there are those who defend the traditional philosophy of the Cuban Baseball Federation (without those repatriated emigrant players).
Then, much less, those who left the delegation.
There is also a group that considers that there should be a merger between the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players and the Cuban Baseball Federation.
There are those who still point out in public that the fault where Cuban "big leaguers" cannot represent Cuba is NOT the responsibility of the Cuban Baseball Federation and others who send it within the Island,
The words of Commissioner Rod Manfred made it clear that Major League Baseball approves that players like Aroldis Chapman, "Pito" Abreu, Yuli Gurriel or Jorge Soler and the rest of the players that are present in the circuits linked to Major League Baseball, can wear the uniform of their country in the 2023 World Classic.
What the official said a while ago is still valid, since there has been no counter-offer after these words issued at a press conference during the last Clásico in 2017. Even the state-run "Prensa Latina" echoed in that moment what was expressed by Manfred and that was immediately replicated by various international media outlets.
In that same press conference, Manfred spoke about the issue of Cubans who left the island to make it to the United States would be allowed to return to Cuba at the end of the season without having to give up their Cuban citizenship. Manfred said that there had been progress but it wasn't final yet.
The latter was made official in the famous MLB-FCB Agreement signed at the end of 2018 and that only lasted about three months.
The Donald Trump administration cancelled the agreement.
Now, an agreement seems unlikely to be resumed in a good time due to the political distance between Cuba and the United States.
However, the issue related to the active players in the Major Leagues and their integration into the Cuban team directed by the Cuban Baseball Federation would be a decision of the FCB and the emigrant athletes who are interested in playing the Classic under this institution. It has nothing to do with the disintegrated Agreement.
But that also seems very difficult to materialize, because although everyone is clear that without players from the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players the possibilities of the FCB team are very remote.
The reluctance to summon players from the Major Leagues remains.
Last year they said that the possibility would be open without having to repatriate, but what happened in the pre-Olympic tournament with Henry Urrutia and Félix Pérez was a real sign that reality is still far from theory.
Even under that same scenario, players like the Gurriel brothers, Vladimir Gutiérrez, Chapman or Aledmys Díaz would not fit for having left the national team in different sporting events.
That form of emigration is the only one that Cuba does not admit to until today. Not even for players trying to pass the criticized repatriation process to play on the Island again, and shortstop Dainer Moreira is the best proof of that.
The good thing about what Manfred expressed is that at least on the North American side there is no limitation for our "big leaguers" to integrate under the laws of their current league and country of residence within the mechanism with which Cuba has assisted the main international baseball event since 2006.
Of course, it would be necessary to see what the position of the players is and how many emigrants would still be willing to be represented by the Cuban Baseball Federation, even if it is only for the Clásico. That is something that cannot be left aside, since several who had previously said that they were willing now do not have the same criteria.
The other thing to take into account, perhaps with even more emphasis, is the position of the Cuban Baseball Federation and those who direct it from higher up, in which the change that many ask for in this regard, is still not seen. And maybe a year later we will be at the same point.
With respect to those who defend the idea of an Independent Cuban team proposed by the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players that was created in Miami, beyond anything else, there is a fact as legal as it is objective about the sporting events in which the International Federations (the World Confederation functions as such) that are not by invitation.
By the statutes of the International Olympic Committee, only teams or athletes participating under the aegis of their National Federation are recognized, and exceptions to the rule have had to attend under the IOC flag, especially at the Olympic Games.
Cuba has been present in the World Baseball Classics organized by the MLB, MLBPA and the WBSC with the FCB as legal representative based on what was stated above. In other words, these institutions have recognized it regardless of its very questionable and even discriminatory work in many aspects, and even the unheard of fact of spending the year without an official head.
The rights of this Cuban Baseball Federation do not seem to change in the face of WBC 2023, nor beyond it, and it is something that they will defend all the time. In fact, they have already begun to do so, depending, I repeat, on what the IOC establishes by law.
Without counting Cuba's good relations with the World Confederation, and also because MLB and the Union right now have other priorities due to the whole situation generated by the lockout, the real focus on the points that must be guaranteed so that the highest priority, which is the Major League season, has the best possible development.
What many have suggested is that MLB and the MLBPA can convince the Cuban authorities so that the players of Cuban nationality who are in the Major Leagues, at least those who want to, have the right to be with their country, and not be their political or migratory position that defines their presence in this competition.
But so far the extreme frontality makes many think that the outlook for the next Classic should not be different from what has been experienced up to now, even worse, if we take into account that the team, according to Cuba, would have a lower finish than the one that qualified in 2017 barely made the second phase of the tournament.
From that moment to the present, many more prospects have been lost.
Those signed by the FCB in foreign leagues, have a lower level than before (with few exceptions) and there are the results in events such as the Pan American, Pre-Olympic and even a Caribbean Cup in Curaçao, which envision a very dark outlook for March 2023.
The words of MLB Commissioner Rod Manfred, although they are important to make clear the legal right of the Cuban players facing the WBC 2023, and thus clear part of the way, they are far from from having the solution to the problem.
The problems are extremely complex and almost impossible to solve. To have a team that returns us to championship form can only be accomplished with individual talent.
I believe that for completely different but real and extremely powerful reasons, it will be unlikely to see our Major League stars wearing the uniform of our country, which by nationality continues to be theirs, either with the Cuban Baseball Federation or with the Cuban Association of Professional Baseball Players.
Only a miracle will save us from a new suffering.
Baseball deserves better treatment. The whims and prejudices around the Cuban team should stop being headlines in this political game,
