Cuba Could Let Baseball Stars Play Overseas -- But Don't Expect U.S. Defections To Stop
Categories: La Habana
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| The Pittsburgh Pirates have already offered this hot young shortstop a $4 million deal. |
Apparently Cuba's baseball honchos (led by Fidel's son) agree. They're pushing a plan to let Cuban stars play overseas freely -- in exchange for sending a chunk of their earnings back home.
As the Castro regime sets out an ambitious set of reforms, massive layoffs and slightly thawed market plans to try to combat an economic meltdown, the $75 million spent in the last two years by MLB teams on Cuban talent must look mighty tempting.
Alas, the idea would still run afoul of the U.S. embargo. Teams couldn't legally pay players knowing that a big part of the salary would be going back to Castro's government.
So for now, Tony Castro is trying to work out a deal with the other major leagues around the world -- in Japan, South Korea and Mexico.
Don't look for an end to the high-profile, high-risk defections -- like those engineered by Juan Ignacio Hernandez Nodar, a scout New Times profiled who spent more than a decade in Havana prisons.
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