Sat, Jul 05, 2014 page19

• Cuba opens pipeline of talent to Japan

  • Reuters, HAVANA and TOKYO
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  Cuba is allowing some of its best baseball players to take their skills to Japan and make good money instead of risking their lives at sea with human traffickers in pursuit of Major League Baseball (MLB) dreams.

  The bright lights of the US major leagues do still draw Cuban prospects to speedboats in order to escape the communist-run island — one player just left the island and six others were excluded from the national team for trying — but now they have options.

  In an attempt to halt defections, Cuba is allowing some of its players to sign overseas contracts, while raising the pay of those who stay.

  Two of Cuba’s biggest stars have signed officially sanctioned contracts this season with Nippon Professional Baseball teams and Cuba for the first time is welcoming foreign scouts. South Koreans have also come looking for Cuban talent.

  Cuba once prevented its stars from playing in the US, but now MLB teams are shut out of the Cuban market only because of the decades-old US economic embargo of the country.

  Without the embargo, they would be free to scout and sign players straight out of Cuba as long as they are willing to share the rights to players with the Cuban government, which also takes a 20 percent cut of the contracts, plus income tax.

  The shakeup in Cuba’s rules comes at a time of unprecedented success for Cuban players, as typified by this year’s sensation, Jose Abreu of the Chicago White Sox.

  After defecting last year, Abreu signed a six-year, US$68 million contract and deftly adapted to the majors. He is among the league leaders in home runs.

  Yasiel Puig defected from Cuba on a speedboat aged 21 and soon found himself entangled with Mexico’s notorious Zetas crime organization, which threatened to chop off his arm if it failed to receive the US$250,000 fee for his passage.

  When Puig finally reached the US in 2012, he was rewarded with a seven-year, US$42 million contract by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

  By contrast, Frederich Cepeda is one of Cuba’s most accomplished players over the past decade. When the Cuban government finally gave Cepeda his chance to make his fortune overseas, he was past his prime at 34, so he signed a one-year, US$1.5 million deal with Japan’s Yomiuri Giants.

  Cepeda was the first to arrive in Japan in April, followed by Yulieski Gourriel, who signed a US$900,000 deal with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars in May.

  Cepeda said he long wanted to test himself against better competition, but chose to wait for a legal option rather than leave behind his wife and six-year-old son behind.

  Even so, the US will continue to appeal to some players.

  “To be frank with you, there will be players who will defect the country because there are many baseball players in Cuba. All of them cannot sign contracts with foreign teams under this new agreement,” Cepeda said. “So some players will choose to play for MLB. Maybe the number of players who would do that will fall, but I don’t think the number will be zero.”
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