• Submitted by: manso
• Sports
• 09 / 26 / 2010

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Cuba may allow its stars to play professional baseball abroad, ESPN Deportes columnist Enrique Rojas wrote in his blog.

Rojas based his information on a “source close to Cuban baseball authorities.” Even if the Cuban government were to allow its players to sign contracts in the United States, the U.S. embargo would make financial transactions with Cuba impossible.

The Cuban national team and league have suffered a talent drain to the U.S. Big Leagues throughout the past decades.

Cuban officials are now “seriously studying” new regulations that would allow baseball players who have played at least eight years in the national league to sign up with professional teams in the United States and elsewhere.

Under the arrangement currently under discussion, free agents would have to agree to be available for the national team, to be represented by state agency CubaDeportes, and to deduct 40 percent of their salary to the Cuban state.

CubaDeportes is the agency run by the governing body of Cuban sports, INDER, that manages all contracts involving foreign entities.

Over the past decade, INDER allowed star hitter Omar Linares during his last active years to play in for professional teams in Japan, and a number of Cubans have coached teams in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Source: www.cubastandard.com/2010/09/23/espn-columnist-cuba-may-allow-baseball-s...