Cuban efforts to hang onto baseball talent not working, star players still choosing life in exile

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

After Alex Guerrero, the Cuban infielder who defected in early 2013, signed a four-year, $28 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he expressed a thought that many others with a lot less direct knowledge on the topic have had.

 

“Now that people like Yasiel [Puig] and José Dariel [Abreu] are gone,” Guerrero told Fox News Latino, “there are only five or six top-level ballplayers left.” After mentioning slugger Alfredo Despaigne he added, “There aren’t many others.”

 

All the high-profile defections by stars like Puig, Abreu and Aroldis Chapman led the Cuban government to make an unprecedented effort to stop the devastating baseball talent drain.

 

The regime relaxed a five-decade ban on professional play in September 2013 and allowed a small number of ballplayers to sign offseason contracts with leagues like Japan's and Mexico's as long as a large chunk of their contracts goes to the state and they return to play in Cuba.

 

The state also gave raises to on-island athletes.

 

But the move doesn't seem to be working. And, as the country's Serie Nacional began its 54th season on Sunday, a few observers say that the league has been as weakened by the departure of promising prospects chasing dreams of riches in the U.S. as by the high-profile defectors.

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"Freedom been very, very good to me."