Cuba may allow its stars to play professional baseball abroad, ESPN Deportes columnist Enrique Rojas wrote in his blog.

Rojas based his information on a “source close to Cuban baseball authorities,” but he said he expected the news to be denied by government officials.

Even if the Cuban government were to allow its players to sign contracts in the United States, the U.S. embargo would make financial transactions with Cuba impossible.

The Cuban national team and league have suffered a talent drain to the U.S. Big Leagues throughout the past decades. The government has treated athletes who left the island as deserters and won’t allow them back into the country, let alone play on the Cuban national team.

Cuban officials are now “seriously studying” new regulations that would allow baseball players who have played at least eight years in the national league to sign up with professional teams in the United States and elsewhere, without suffering the wrath of their government, the source told Rojas.

Under the arrangement currently under discussion, free agents would have to agree to be available for the national team, to be represented by state agency CubaDeportes, and to deduct 40 percent of their salary to the Cuban state.

CubaDeportes is the agency run by the governing body of Cuban sports, INDER, that manages all contracts involving foreign entities.

Although the way Cuban athletes train and play is quasi professional, the Cuban government has scoffed at the notion of letting its athletes become pros. There have been a few exceptions, though. Over the past decade, INDER allowed star hitter Omar Linares during his last active years to play in for professional teams in Japan, and a number of Cubans have coached teams in the Dominican Republic and Mexico.

Some of the best-known Cuban baseball “deserters” include Ariel Prieto, René Arocha, brothers Liván and Orlando Hernández, José Contreras, Osvaldo Fernández, Rey Ordóñez, Rolando Arrojo, Danys Báez, Yuniesky Betancourt, Kendry Morales, Alexei Ramírez, Dayán Viciedo, Yunieski Maya, José Iglesias, Noel Arguelles, Yadel Martí, Yasser Gómez, and Aroldis Chapman.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 23rd, 2010 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.