Baseball Defectors Invoke Shock in Cuba

(ATR) Shock dawned in Cuba on Monday where baseball is the main national pastime: the country's best player defected in Santo Domingo after competing in the 58th Caribbean Series, just a few hours before the team returned to Havana.

The few on the island with internet access were the first to hear the news broadcasted on digital media sites in southern Florida. Infielder Yulieski Gurriel and his brother Lourdes left their teammates early Monday morning from the hotel where they were staying in the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Yulieski had his national team debut in the same city just 13 years ago for the 2003 Pan American Games.

Both played as infielders for Cuba's Ciego de Avila club but have defected to the U.S. to pursue careers in Major League Baseball. Yulieski is often considered Cuba's best baseball player while his younger brother Lourdes is considered the country's top prospect.

Cuban state media began to report an official statement confirming the news rumors Monday morning. The radio and television bulletins opened by accusing both athletes of their "direct surrender to the merchants of Major and Minor League Baseball". The statement did not describe the athletes as deserters or traitors as past statements regarding defectors had.

At 31-years-old, Yulieski is an Olympic gold medalist from the Athens 2004 Games and a silver medalist at Beijing 2008. He has also played in three Baseball World Classics and played in the World Baseball Softball Confederation Premier12 tournament in Japan last November. He opted out of playing for the Cuban national team that finished third at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.

"It doesn't leave me surprised. Everyone thought he would be the first Cuban player backed by the government, which would open a legal route from Cuba with any major league club," Juan Quinones tells Around the Rings regarding Yulieski's departure.

Yulieski's eldest brother, Yunieski, acts in Quebec, Canada with a professional troupe with the support of the Cuban government. The three brothers are sons of a former local star, and everyone played for the Industriales Club in Havana, the most popular on the island.

"Everything indicates that the Gurriel's are on track to become the first billionaire family of Cuban sport" a Cuban official told ATR.

Click here to read this story in Spanish.

Written by Miguel Hernández

Translated by Kevin Nutley

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