Aroldis Chapman (Boston Red Sox) Says No to Cuba’s WBC Team
“I was a traitor and now they want me to go play”
Players who “deserted or breached contracts” will not reinforce the island’s team, according to ‘Swing Completo’.
HAVANA TIMES – Baseball player Aroldis Chapman, known as the Cuban Missile, rejected the Cuban Baseball Federation’s plan to reinforce with exiles the national team that will participate in 6th World Baseball Classic in 2026. The pitcher, who fled in 2009 in Rotterdam, Holland, stressed: “I was a traitor, a gusano [worm] and a vendepatria [sell-out], and now they want me to go play.”
“I think that all those people who are calling up the players who are here [in the USA] and those who are going to the Classic are the first ones who should respect themselves and not be calling up everyone,” he said in an interview with the specialized media outlet Swing Completo.
The Holguín native recalled that after his failed escape attempt in 2008 he was removed from the national team which he was a member of when Cuba won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. “Nobody likes you, nobody wants to talk to you or hang out with you and everyone blames you,” he said.
Chapman commented that because of his final escape in 2009, as happens with all athletes who defect, he had to spend eight years without being able to enter Cuba. “I was the black sheep of all of Holguin and possibly of all of Cuba,” he recalled.
The left-handed pitcher earned 150 pesos a month on the island (just over US $6 at the time) and was subjected to long training sessions and little food. “I lived day to day,” he told Dominican journalist Yancen Pujols. A year after his escape, the Cincinnati Reds offered him a six-year contract for $30 million dollars. In his first season he threw a fastball at 105.1 mph, a record that no one has been able to surpass to date.
Swing Completo reported that “there are possible agreements between the Cuban team management and athletes who play in the Major Leagues.” Among the names of reinforcements are Yoan Moncada and Andy Ibáñez.
However, the same media outlet specifies that those players who have “deserted, breached contracts, or who have spoken negatively about the communist government of Cuba or denigrated national symbols” are excluded from a possible invitation.
In light of this statement, the following players would not be able to represent the Island in the VI World Classic 2026 for deserting: Jose Iglesias (2008), Aledmys Díaz (2012), Odrisamer Despaigne (2013), Yadiel Hernández and Vladimir Gutiérrez (2015), Yulieski Gurriel and Lourdes Gurriel Jr (2016), Yoelqui Cespedes and Norge Carlos Vera (2019).
Also affected are Andy Rodriguez, Cesar Prieto, Lazaro Blanco, Luis Dani Morales, Brian Chi, Geysel Cepeda, Loidel Chapellí Jr. and Loidel Rodriguez (2021).
In 2023, Cuban Baseball Federation reinforced the team that represented the island in the World Classic with exiled players. The so-called Team Asere lost its semi-final game against the United States and suffered the escape of Ivan Prieto, who signed with the Mexican club Piratas de Campeche.
Translated by Translating Cuba.