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The social, economic, and political crisis facing Cuba continues to drive an unprecedented mass exodus in its baseball: nearly 40 Cuban prospects have signed with MLB organizations during the 2024–2025 international signing period, a figure that once again confirms the collapse of the island's sports system.
This was reported on Facebook by journalist Francys Romero, one of the most reliable analysts on the Cuban baseball diaspora.
With only 15 days remaining until the signing period closes, 1,011 players from 23 countries have signed contracts with Major League organizations. Among them, Cuba has 39 signings, a disproportionate number for a country without formal participation in the international market, where talent must either escape through irregular means or emigrate to aspire to a contract.
Romero detailed the distribution of signatures by country:
Dominican Republic: 441
Venezuela: 386
Mexico: 62
Cuba: 39
Colombia: 25
Panama: 15
Nicaragua: 6
Taiwan: 5
Italy: 4
Bahamas: 4
Japan: 3
South Korea: 3
United States: 3
Curacao: 2
Brazil: 2
Australia: 2
Aruba: 2
Haiti: 2
U.S. Virgin Islands: 1
France: 1
Saint Marteen: 1
South Sudan: 1
Uganda: 1
An exodus that responds to a single reality: Cuba offers no future
The 39 Cuban athletes do not represent a success of national sports, but rather a harsh diagnosis: young people must leave the country to aspire to a professional career, decent contracts, and economic stability for their families.
While countries in the Caribbean and Latin America use academies and official programs to develop talent, in Cuba, the emigration of prospects occurs due to: severe deterioration of the sports structure; symbolic and insufficient salaries; state restrictions on signing with MLB; lack of resources, equipment, and proper nutrition; legal insecurity and political repression; and a country that is socially and economically collapsed.
Romero has documented this trend for years and warns that Cuba is experiencing the largest exodus of baseball players in its history, a phenomenon accelerated by the deepening of the internal crisis and the lack of a state plan that provides real opportunities.
A diaspora that is now competing with regional powers
Cuba, which was once a solid and organized sports powerhouse, now appears on the list of international signings through the least desirable route: the forced migration of its talent. With 39 signings, it surpasses countries with active professional leagues and formal structures, such as Italy, South Korea, or Japan.
Cuban baseball, a mirror of a country in crisis
The national sport reflects the reality of the country: while thousands of young people see their only way out in emigration, the Island continues to lose generations of talent that could have enriched a sports system that is now practically dismantled.
Cuba does not officially participate in the international market, but its children do: from abroad, from exile, from the diaspora. That is the new landscape of Cuban baseball.
And these 39 signatures are not a celebration: they are the most recent evidence that in Cuba, there is no future for the majority of its athletes.
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