Cuba withdraws from the Caribbean Baseball Cup in the Bahamas

The Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) announced on Tuesday that it will not participate in the Caribbean Cup, a regional tournament organized by WBSC Americas, due to registration costs and infrastructure issues at the event's venue, which this year is set to take place in the Bahamas.

According to the post on Facebook by journalist Duanys Hernández, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, president of the FCB, explained in a press conference that the decision is primarily due to "economic reasons," at a time when Cuban sports is facing one of its worst financial and structural crises, characterized by deteriorated facilities, a shortage of resources, and the constant brain drain towards other countries.

According to Pérez Pardo, organizing the tournament in the Bahamas involved expenses that were difficult for Cuba to bear: $65 per day for each registered player, an amount that was unmanageable for an increasingly constrained federation.

In addition, the Bahamas has only one stadium, which limited the capacity to six teams, forcing WBSC Americas to assign the spots based on rankings.

Cuba is already qualified for Santo Domingo 2026

The federative emphasized that the absence is also justified because Cuba has already secured its ticket to the Central American and Caribbean Games Santo Domingo 2026.

"If we weren't qualified, we would attend regardless of the cost," he asserted.

The FCBS had proposed holding two qualifying tournaments instead of allocating spots based on rankings, but the WBSC Americas did not accept the initiative.

International Calendar of Cuba for 2026

Despite its absence from the Caribbean Cup, the federation announced Cuba's participation in other events:

January 23: Americas Series in Panama, featuring a team made up of players from the National Series and pre-selected players for the World Baseball Classic.

2026 Caribbean Series (Venezuela): Ciego de Ávila, champion of the Elite League, will participate.

Champions League (April 2026): The champion of the 64th National Series will participate.

A reflection of the decline of Cuban baseball

Cuba's absence from the Caribbean Cup once again highlights the financial and institutional fragility of sports on the island. For decades, the national team was an undisputed powerhouse in the region, but today the country lacks basic resources, loses players at an accelerated rate, and avoids international tournaments for economic reasons.

In a landscape where professional baseball is advancing across the continent, Cuba—once a benchmark—continues to decline, trapped in a crisis that its federation can barely manage.