Cuban Players And Teams Growing Frustrated With MLB Free Agency Process

Major League Baseball on Monday cleared Yulieski Gurriel to sign, an action that increased frustrations among Cuban players and teams, while again raising questions about how the commissioner’s office dictates which players are eligible to sign.

For many Cuban players, waiting for MLB to clear them to sign is a long process. Outfielder Jorge Ona, righthander Norge Ruiz and lefthanders Adrian Morejon and Cionel Perez are among the top young Cuban players who left their country last year and are subject to the international bonus pools. Yet all four players—and many others—are still waiting for the commissioner’s office to clear them. That is despite the fact that all of them left Cuba before Gurriel did.

Here’s when Baseball America reported that each player left Cuba:

Norge Ruiz – May 2015
Cionel Perez – May 2015
Jorge Ona – July 2015
Adrian Morejon – October 2015
Yulieski Gurriel – February 2016

According to one MLB official, who declined to talk about specific players, each case is different, with numerous factors beyond when a player left Cuba or submitted his paperwork to the league that are relevant and can be determinants to when MLB closes out a case. Sometimes, a player (or the person filing the paperwork on his behalf) doesn’t submit the proper paperwork correctly. Other times, the information submitted on a player is of questionable veracity, which means it takes longer for MLB to look into that documentation. Then there are other legal obstacles that certain players have run into that need to be resolved, which can also slow down the process.

Gurriel, a 32-year-old third baseman, left the Cuban team in the Dominican Republic at the Caribbean Series in February, yet he managed to hop into the express lane for free agency. Gurriel was the No. 1 player in BA’s Cuban player rankings and a potential immediate star at the major league level. He’s also exempt from the international bonus pools and can sign without any restrictions, a luxury the other four players (and many others still waiting to get cleared) do not have.

For young players subject to the bonus pools, the timing of when MLB clears them to sign can have a significant impact on their future and their earning power. On Wednesday, the 2015-16 international signing period closes, followed by a two-week closed period where no signings are allowed until July 2, when the 2016-17 signing period begins.

Once the current 2015-16 signing period ends, the Blue Jays, Cubs, Dodgers, Giants and Royals won’t be able to spend more than $300,000 on any player subject to the bonus pools, a penalty for exceeding their pools during the 2015-16 period. Unless those players get cleared by Wednesday, they will lose the ability to negotiate a deal for more than $300,000 with the Dodgers and Cubs, two teams that have been heavyweights when it comes to spending on international free agents and Cuban players in particular.

With 10 teams (including the Red Sox and Yankees) limited to signings of no more than $300,000 for the 2016-17 signing period, players have significantly reduced leverage if their free agency is delayed until after Wednesday. Meanwhile, most teams have already committed the majority of their 2016-17 bonus pools with oral agreements for players (mostly 16-year-olds from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela) to sign on July 2.

For Ona and Morejon, MLB’s delay might not affect them much. They are likely to sign with the Padres, who are planning to shatter their international bonus pool on July 2. Yet aside from these four prominent players, others who might be able to sign in the $2-4 million range with a team like the Dodgers or even in the $500,000 to $1 million range with one of the five teams heading into the penalty box are losing out on that opportunity as well.

It’s not the first time that Cuban players and teams have been frustrated with delays for Cuban signings. Until last year, MLB required Cuban players to obtain a written document known as a “specific license” from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), going above and beyond the “general license” requirements of the United States government. That process added six months of waiting for some Cuban players to be eligible to sign, even though the general license was good enough for players to sign in the view of the U.S. government.