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The Cuban shortstop Jonathan Valle, 18 years old, has agreed to a contract with the San Francisco Giants after more than three years of searching in the Dominican Republic, according to journalist Francys Romero's report on his social media.
The agreement is pending physical examination at the time of reporting.
Valle left Cuba in January 2023 after being named the best defensive shortstop at the 2022 U-15 World Championship, held in Hermosillo, Mexico, where Cuba reached the final and finished second after losing to the United States.
Since then, the young baseball player trained at the Ray Castillo Academy in the Dominican Republic, awaiting the opportunity to secure a contract with a Major League organization, a process that extended over more than three years.
Romero highlighted that, from the Cuba U-15 team of 2022, 19 out of the 20 players left the country, and Valle becomes the tenth to sign with an MLB organization.
That massive exodus began to be documented in early 2023, when a group of Cuban prospects arrived in the Dominican Republic in search of opportunities in North American professional baseball.
By June of that same year, at least 12 of the 20 players from the Under-15 World Cup had already emigrated from the Island, a number that continued to grow in the following months.
The pattern was repeated with other young talents: a prominent prospect of just 14 years left Cuba in August 2023, and another talented under-15 player escaped the country weeks later.
Among the Valle companions who also emigrated are Ernest Machado, Alejandro Prieto, Segian Pérez, Dulieski Ferrán, Alex Acosta, and Yosniel Menéndez, several of whom had already signed with MLB organizations before him.
The massive exodus of these young people is a response to the limitations of the Cuban sports system, which prevents its athletes from freely accessing the international professional market.
The Dominican Republic serves as a bridge for these prospects: baseball academies and agents allow them to prepare physically and be evaluated by scouts while they process their status as international free agents under MLB rules, a process that took Valle more than three years.
The San Francisco Giants have been an active organization in signing prospects from the Cuba Sub-15 team in recent years, establishing themselves as one of the preferred destinations for young Cuban talent in the international market.
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