MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) announced the holding of an important showcase on September 28 and 29 at the Latin American Stadium Havana, where approximately 60 young talents of national baseball will show their skills before foreign and local specialists. This event, unprecedented in terms of the magnitude and number of scouts present, has as its main objective to offer contract opportunities in foreign leagues to the best prospects of the country, according to the official. HIT.
The selection trials will be held in two phases. The first, of an eliminatory nature, will take place between September 5 and 17 in various provinces of the country. The Western, Central and Eastern regions will host these trials, with specific events in Santiago de Cuba (September 5 and 6), Villa Clara (September 11 and 12) and Matanzas (September 16 and 17). In Havana, a special session will be organized on September 11 for local athletes who will not participate in the Matanzas trial. From these regional events, around 60 players, between 15 and 23 years old, will be selected to participate in the final showcase at the Latinoamericano.
The showcase in Havana will be an opportunity mainly for the under-18 and under-23 categories, although players in the under-15 category and those over 23 years of age are not ruled out. This event will coincide with the training sessions of the national pre-selection that will compete in the tournament. Premier 12which will allow for additional exhibition games to be held, increasing viewing opportunities for scouts in attendance.
In September 2023the FCB had already organised a similar event, where 80 players were presented to scouts from professional leagues looking for contracts. This year, the participation of talent scouts has grown significantly. In addition to Japanese scouts, specialists from the Luis Consuegra Academy of the Dominican Republic, the Provincial Sports Association of Baseball of Pichincha in Ecuador and the Lotte Giants organisation from South Korea will be present.
Ricardo Eizmendiz, technical director of the National Baseball Commission, highlighted the importance of this event by saying that “it is the first time that an event of this magnitude has been organized in Cuba. There have been others, but never with the presence of a large number of scouts. We want a similar exhibition to be repeated every year around this time.”
These showcases are organized by Cuban sports authorities in the context of the constant migratory exodus of athletes, especially young baseball players. In 2023Of the hundred athletes who left Cuba, baseball led the emigration statistics with 41 players, most of them prospects.
Among the young baseball players who emigrated from the island last year are Jonathan Valle, Cristian de Jesus Zamora, Ronald Elias Terrero, Yariel Rodriguez, Geisel Tellez, Edelvis Perez, Ernesto Santi, Roger Bolanos, Yunior David Villavicencio, Yulian Quintana, Yasiel Gonzalez, Luis Mario Macias, Fernando Ramos, Alexander Valiente, Renyi Norbel Membrives, Mailon Batista Corrales and Julio Cesar Perez. Most of them left in search of opportunities in Major League Baseball (MLB) through free agency.
In 2024, among the cases that have come to light of young talents who have left the country are Ariel Pestano Jr., son of the former catcher of the National Baseball Team, who left for Nicaragua last June; and Xian Vegason of actor Herón Vega and grandson of iconic Cuban cinema figures Daisy Granados and Pastor Vega. Xian, 21, is also in Nicaragua with the goal of signing a contract with a Major League Baseball organization.
