Trump Undoes Obama Deal Once Beneficial to Cuban Baseball Players
By GEORGE ROSE ‘21
Cuba, a nation where baseball has been played professionally since the 1870s, has supplied Major League Baseball with great players like Tony Pérez and Minnie Minoso. Unfortunately, because of the Cuban-American relationship, some players have never gotten the chance to play in the big leagues. The Red Sox alone have claimed standouts such as Luis Tiant, who, as a pitcher in the 1970s, accumulated four twenty-plus-win seasons and led the American League in Earned Run Average twice. Cuban players like Yasiel Puig and Aroldis Chapman continue to make their impact in the majors. But because of a sudden move by the Trump Administration, efforts to help Cuban players make their way to MLB teams are now in jeopardy.
On Monday, April 8th, the Trump Administration sought to block a deal between the Cuban Baseball Federation and Major League Baseball that would help Cuban baseball players avoid the dangers of defecting Cuba in order to play baseball in the United States, according to The Washington Post.
The Washington Post reported that the Trump Administration’s move—which declared the deal between the Cuban federation and MLB illegal—happened only a few days after 34 Cuban players were declared eligible by the Cuban federation to sign with MLB. The reasons for the Trump administration’s action is a bit like insider baseball and has a history dating back to the Obama Administration, which tried to normalize relations with Cuba.
Some baseball fans may remember Obama and his family in 2016 watching a Tampa Bay Rays game in Havana, Cuba, against the Cuban National Team (Tampa Bay won 4-1). Fans who followed that game may remember that while President Obama was sitting with Cuban President Raul Castro, across the atlantic, Brussels, Belgium, was reeling from a terrorist attack. Donald Trump, then a presidential candidate, tweeted that Obama “should leave the baseball game in Cuba immediately and get home to Washington.” However, through negotiations and this trip to Cuba, Obama helped open a pathway for Cuban baseball players to come to the American majors, something that had not been possible before (the players would have just been considered to be defecting from their home nation).
But what exactly was this pathway? According to the Washington Post, what the issue really comes down to is the payments the MLB was making to the Cuban Baseball federation. The Trump Administration says that the Cuban Baseball Federation is really an extension of the Cuban government, and therefore the deal is illegal. For a major league player, the Cuban Baseball Federation was, according to Obama’s deal, receiving 15-25% of that player’s signing bonus. This new pathway gave no reason for Cuban ball players to have to attempt to make dangerous escapes. The pathway also made it so that these players were no longer “defecting” from their home country.
Unfortunately, Donald Trump undid this pathway, making it much harder for players from one of the biggest baseball countries to come to MLB and show their skills. The Washington Post wrote: “The Trump administration Monday declared illegal a December deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation that would have allowed Cuban athletes to play in this country without having to defect.” The Trump administration, in a move directly clashing with the viewpoint of the Obama administration, ruled that the Cuban Baseball Administration is not separate enough from the Cuban government to receive these payments from the MLB, despite assurances from the Cuban Baseball Federation, according to the Washington Post.
What are the real implications of this decision? Well, it seems that for now at least, Cuban prospects will have to continue to defect and struggle for housing in order to reach their dream of playing in the MLB.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/sports/mlb-cuba-donald-trump.html