The talent drip from Cuba to Major League Baseball is picking up speed. Players are more desperate to escape the island nation for potential huge paydays in MLB, and it is clear the communist nation has more than a little talent.
Five of the most skilled and exciting players in the game have sought asylum (and found wealth) in the US, including the first baseman Jose Abreu, outfielders Yasiel Puig and Yoenis Cespedes, and pitchers Aroldis Chapman, Jose Fernandez and Odrisamer Despaigne.
The bull-like Abreu has 30 home runs and 78 runs batted in and is one of the few reasons a person would want to see the Chicago White Sox play; Puig has 48 extra-base hits and an on-base percentage of 40 per cent for the Los Angeles Dodgers; Cespedes has 17 home runs and 63 RBI for the formidable Oakland Athletics.
Chapman is an elite closer, Fernandez was one of the top starting pitchers until his elbow exploded and Despaigne is a promising pitcher in the second month of his US career.
With sudden wealth the lure, the defectors are arriving any way they can manage: escaping their minders when playing international games, or being smuggled over the water, and into the States, to claim asylum.
Cuba is perhaps the greatest baseball-loving nation in the world, with the Dominican Republic second and Japan and the US holding the next two spots. If Cuba’s relations with the US are ever normalised, it seems we can expect a flood of talent into MLB.
poberjuerge@thenational.ae
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