Major League Baseball

Now playing near you: Cuban citizens, not Cuban defectors

Published Jun. 10, 2015 3:08 p.m. ET

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Pat Scalabrini remembers the anxiety within the Quebec Capitales’ bus on the afternoon of May 20. The team had rolled through Quebec and Ontario and was about to enter the United States through the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, en route to a season-opening series in Gary, Ind.

The reason for the tension? Four Cuban nationals were on board.

Among all the tales you’ve heard of Cuban baseball players entering the U.S. — defections, speedboats, payoffs to human smugglers — surely this is the tamest one, because it was entirely legal. Three governments — Cuban, Canadian, American — gave their assent for pitcher Ismel Jimenez, infielder Yordan Manduley and outfielders Alexei Bell and Yuniesky Gourriel to clear customs that day.

Their passage proved uneventful. Understandably, the players had been conditioned to expect otherwise.

“Once we crossed, they kept saying, ‘Are we in the States now?’ Then a few minutes later, they’d ask again, ‘Are we still in the States?’ ” recalled Scalabrini, manager of the Quebec City-based team in the independent Can-Am League. “I just kept telling them, ‘Yeah, no worries.’

“Surprisingly, it went off without any hiccup. It was actually easier for them to cross than the guys from Venezuela. It was very easy. The people at the border were very intrigued. One of the (U.S. customs agents) was a big baseball fan and knew who Alexei was. The guys were very nervous, but it went by really well.

“And they haven’t stopped shopping since the day they showed up. It’s crazy how much these guys shop.”

The notion of Cuban citizens — not Cuban defectors — playing professional games in the U.S. is jarring, but a number of factors have made it possible. Among them:

* The Cuban government recently began allowing Cubans to play abroad, as long as they maintain their obligations to the national league (Serie Nacional) and Cuban national team. In practice, that has enabled Cuban players to participate in the summer Japanese and Mexican leagues. (The Cuban season runs fall to spring.)

* Under terms of the U.S. embargo, Cuban citizens are not eligible for employment by Major League Baseball clubs. Canadian entities, by contrast, face no restriction in doing business with Cuban nationals. Thus, the Capitales — a Canadian team in a league without affiliation to MLB — are free to hire Cuban players.

* Scalabrini and Capitales team president Michel Laplante built goodwill and trust with Cuban government and sports officials over several trips to the island. They brought 50 Canadian kids to Cuba for baseball clinics and games. They donated equipment to Cuban youth baseball programs. They met with Arnaldo Batista, head of the Cuban sports ministry, and assured him the players will return to their homeland when the season is done.

The Cuban players earn an average wage for the Can-Am League: $1,500 per month. That doesn’t sound like much, until one considers that the Cuban government pays its players about $40 per month.

“We know we’re extremely lucky to have these players,” said Scalabrini, who’s in his sixth season managing the team. “We’ve worked really hard at developing those relationships.”

Scalabrini, a native of Sherbrooke, Quebec, is fluent in French and English and has taken private Spanish lessons in an effort to better communicate with his new players. The notion of recruiting Cuban players first arose through contact between the team and Lourdes Gourriel, patriarch of perhaps the most influential family in Cuban baseball.

Yuniesky Gourriel — Lourdes’ oldest son — received permission to play for the Capitales last year, as a test case for the new arrangement.

Scalabrini undoubtedly would love to have the younger Gourriel brothers — Yulieski and Lourdes Jr. — on the Capitales, after they were mysteriously left off the Cuban national team roster for next month’s Pan-American Games near Toronto. Yulieski and Lourdes Jr. were supposed to play this season for the Yokohama Bay Stars in Japan, but neither has done so — leading to speculation that they might want to move to MLB.

“There actually have been talks about trying to bring Lourdes Jr. to Quebec, but he’s still under contract in Japan,” Scalabrini said. “He wanted to come here. He’d be an impact guy for us. He’d make a lot of noise with the media here. They’re still working on getting that contract torn up, but I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re not hearing a lot about it right now.”

As for Yulieski?

“I really don’t know what’s going on,” Scalabrini said. “He’s definitely in Cuba. He’s totally healthy. He’s at home, getting bored. I think he’s anxious to play. I know his wife is expecting.”

Even without the younger Gourriel brothers, the Capitales probably rank close behind MLB teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox in employing the greatest concentration of Cuban-born talent away from the island. Bell has been a national team stalwart for years, and Jimenez and Manduley are talented enough that they’ll soon leave Quebec and join the Cuban national team ahead of the Pan-Am Games.

No one knows whether the U.S. and Cuban governments will, by virtue of improved relations, soon establish a new working agreement whereby MLB teams purchase players from Cuba — with a fee paid to the Cuban government. For now, Stade Municipal in an historic French-speaking city offers a glimpse at what the new normal in North American baseball could become.

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