Cuban Baseball Federation president is pleased the MLB will allow Cuban players to play with their home country for WBC: "Only just solution"

The United States is going to allow Cuban players to play for their home country in the next World Baseball Classic. It was recently announced that MLB has given permission to players playing in the MLB or residing in the United States to suit up for the Cuban National Team.

According to the Tapei Times, Cuban Baseball Federation president Juan Reinaldo Perez Pardo said:

“This is a positive step, but it needs to be said it was the only just solution."

Previously, those players would have either played for the United States or not at all. The United States embargo and a few recent sanctions seriously complicate transactions with the country of Cuba.

It is so complicated that players cannot play in the MLB without defecting from Cuba. This has caused the Cuban population to drop as a result. The country is a huge producer of baseball talent, but that talent can't play in the top league in the world without renouncing the country.

Reports suggest that 650 baseball stars have defected from Cuba in the last six years. Should this agreement between the United States and Cuba extend beyond just this WBC, that might begin to change.

Which MLB stars can now play for the Cuban National Baseball Team?

The exact details of this agreement haven't been announced, but this will likely open the door for a lot of top tier talent to play for their home country again.

This includes:

Jose Abreu
Aroldis Chapman
Yasmani Grandal
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Yoan Moncada
Jorge Soler
Rasiel Iglesias
Luis Robert
Yordan Alvarez
Randy Arozarena
Adolis Garcia

There's plenty of top-flight talent in Cuba, but they've largely been unable to use it these past few years. All-Stars like Yordan Alvarez and Jose Abreu now have the opportunity to represent the country they were born in.

Cuba's talent earned gold medals at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and Athens in 2004.

They failed to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo during 2020 (2021 due to COVID-19) but they're still one of the top countries in the world when it comes to baseball.