The Spanish baseball team competing this Friday in the 2027 Premier 12 Qualifier is mostly made up of players of Cuban descent: nine players and one coach born on the island are part of the roster that Spain will present in Barcelona, according to Pelota Cubana.
The tournament kicks off this Friday at the Carlos Pérez de Rozas Municipal Baseball Field and features Spain, Italy, Germany, and Colombia in a round-robin format. The top two teams will qualify for the Premier 12 2027, a competition that is also part of the path to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
The nine Cubans called up are the catcher Omar Hernández, the team captain, the outfielders Félix Stevens and Frank Hernández, and the pitchers Elián Leyva, Pablo Luis Guillén, Royd Hernández, Rubén Menes, Dayán González, and Carlos Sierra. The coaching staff also includes a Cuban presence with coach Néstor Pérez.
Spain is the host of the group and the least favored according to the WBSC world ranking: it ranks 26th, behind Colombia (13), Italy (14), and Germany (17).
The schedule places the Spaniards against Germany this Friday, against Italy on Saturday, and against Colombia on Sunday, with all matches at 7:00 PM local time.
Several of those selected have outstanding careers representing the Spanish national team. Omar Hernández, born in Havana in 2001, arrived in Spain with his twin brother Frank in 2013 and developed his skills at the Viladecans Baseball Club, where he became the first player from the club to sign with a Major League franchise by agreeing to terms with the Kansas City Royals in 2018. In the 2023 European Championship, he led the tournament in runs scored and home runs, achieving an OPS of 1.397 and hitting four homers.
Pablo Luis Guillén, a pitcher from Villa Clara, was one of the main starters for the European Championship in 2023, and in this year's Spanish league with Tenerife, he recorded a record of 3-0, an ERA of 0.46 in 19.2 innings, and a WHIP of 0.73. Royd Hernández, for his part, accumulated a record of 4-1 in 2024 with an ERA of 2.21 and 53 strikeouts in the same number of innings.
The call-up with nine Cubans in the Spanish roster represents the highest concentration of players from that background in a Spanish national team to date, surpassing the six spots they held in the qualifying round of the VI World Baseball Classic held in February 2025.
This strategy bore its most visible fruit at the 2023 European Championship in the Czech Republic, where Spain won its first continental title in 68 years, thanks to decisive contributions from Cuban players. Eligibility through passport, ancestry, or permanent residency in Spain has allowed the Spanish federation to systematically integrate Cuban emigrants with international competitive levels.
Cuba, meanwhile, does not need to compete in this qualifying round: its position in the WBSC ranking guaranteed it direct access to the Premier 12 2027, meaning several of its former players could face the Cuban national team in that phase if Spain manages to qualify in Barcelona.
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