Major League Baseball has submitted a proposal to the U.S. Treasury Department to offer Cuban players a better route to sign with major league clubs, writes Ben Strauss of the New York Times. Presently, a U.S. embargo against Cuba forces defectors to establish residency in a third country before they can join the professional ranks. While relations have thawed between America and the island nation, the embargo remains in place and could create additional future challenges.
Agreements with baseball leagues in Japan, Korea, and elsewhere include financial compensation for when a player leaves to join the majors. However, the embargo of Cuba makes it a crime to transfer money to the Cuban government. These new talks are aimed at circumventing the embargo.
The proposed plan includes the creation of a non-profit entity to develop baseball and other public interests in Cuba. Teams would donate to this non-profit when signing away Cuban players – theoretically dodging the embargo since the money would not be directly accessible by the government. It’s not yet clear if the Treasury Department will agree with this interpretation for a host of reasons. A spokesman for the league defined the proposal as “opening the way for more substantive talks.”
The need for a new process was most recently made obvious by the reported travails of prospect Lazaro Armentaros aka “Lazarito.” Conflicting reports indicate that, at the very least, Armentaros’ former agent Charles Hairston of Culture39 was physically threatened by a Dominican buscone. His family refuted the notion that Lazarito or his family were in any danger. Regardless of the truth here, other major leaguers have detailed the often life threatening conditions experienced by a defector and their family.
As Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com notes, about 125 players have defected from Cuba in the last 20 months. The sooner baseball and the U.S. government can solve this humanitarian issue, the better.
Here’s an idea stop posting stupid stuff
Because America is a beacon for peace?
The word for a Latin baseball handler is buscone, not boscone.
Correct. Failed to catch that whilst editing.
actually, it is “buscon” in singular form. One adds the “es” ending to make the word plural. English speakers make this error because we most often pluralize by just adding an s. Where you may see this error most frequently is in “tamale/tamales” instead of “tamal/tamales”…and here when reading about buscones.
the singular form is “buscon”.
Such an if ignorant statement. The same things happen with players from the Dominican. Why don’t we generalize and judge another nation. Because this never happens with American born players or those of any other country.
Go vote for Trump Bigotry not apart of MLB
Hopefully not all Americans will be judged by your racist comments.
Mlb needs a less dangerous/sketchy means for players to come to the mlb. This isn’t an issue that started with lazarito. Yulnesky betacourt came from Cuba and had one of his legs broken by a handler. Puig was basically held hostage in a Mexican motel they he “wouldn’t bring a prostitute to” for months. And a few of the people who facilitated his comming to the dodgers no longer have the ability to breathe air. Many Cuban players continue to be extorted for years after they begin their careers.
We, as the public in general do not hear of these types of stories comming out of players comming from Japan, Korea, Mexico, Dominican Republic, or even Venezuela. ( not saying it doesn’t happen, but we don’t hear about it.). If we can get players from a country as troubled as Venezuela with out these types of problems, we should be able to do it with Cuba.