Trump administration moves to undercut MLB's deal with Cuba

Trump administration moves to undercut MLB's deal with Cuba

The administration is moving to reverse an Obama-era ruling that allowed Cuban baseball players to sign with major league teams in the U.S.

April 8, 2019
By Carol E. Lee and Josh Lederman

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration scuttled a landmark deal enabling Cuban baseball players to play on Major League Baseball teams and declared the deal illegal, the latest move to roll back the warming of relations between the United States and Cuba that took hold in the Obama administration.

Senior Trump administration officials said they were rescinding an Obama-era decision that deemed Cuba’s baseball league to be separate from the Cuban government. The U.S. economic embargo on Cuba prohibits Americans from doing business with Cuba’s government, so the Obama administration’s ruling had cleared the way for an agreement between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached late last year.

That deal was designed to facilitate Cuban baseball players joining U.S. teams without having to defect, as had been the case in years past. Now that the ruling that underpinned the deal is being voided, “that agreement will not be able to proceed in its current form,” one official said.

“Major League Baseball has been informed of the dangers of dealing with Cuba,” said a second senior official.

Hard-line critics of the Cuban government, such as Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, have been ramping up pressure over the issue since Cuba earlier this month released the list of the first group of Cuban players who are eligible to sign direct contracts with MLB teams. There were 34 players on that list, with some expected to be able to sign with U.S. teams and start playing as early as this year.

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