Trump Admin Decision to Cancel MLB's Accord with Cuba is a Bad One

With noclear-cut reasoning, the Trump administration’s State Department recently elected to disallow an agreement that Major LeagueBaseball negotiated with the Cuban Baseball Federation to allow Cuban playersto come to the United States more easily to play baseball.

This was anagreement the two sides worked on for years, since the Obama administration initiatedefforts to normalize relations with Cuba.

Cuban playerswho have sought to play Major League Baseball have had to defect and give uptheir Cuban citizenship, establish residency in another country and then worktoward putting on showcases to impress teams that would then bid for servicesas international players.

Many ofthese players over the past 20-plus years have actually had to take periloustrips in rafts from Cuba to make their escapes. Some of those trips are set upby highly unscrupulous agents who really are nothing more than humantraffickers who extort unseemly high percentages of the players’ bonuses.

Most often,these extortion efforts threaten the safety of family members left behind inCuba.

Theagreement between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation would have put an endto the need for these agents by allowing these players the freedom to come to theU.S. to pursue their dreams and have a set percentage of their signing bonus(around 25 percent) go to the Cuban Baseball Federation. Of course with Cubabeing a communist country, the Cuban Baseball Federation is an arm of the Cubangovernment.

But so what? Doesn’t the good that this new agreement would implement remove the dangers associated with defections, escapes and the agents/human traffickers?

But thenagain, allowing this agreement between MLB and the Cuban Baseball Federation togo forward and allow a sense of normalcy to grow in the transactional world ofinternational scouting and acquisitions wouldn’t allow for yet another rollbackof an Obama administration initiative. It’s really that simple. Without thegoal being to discredit the man he replaced as this current administration’s raison d’ etre, it’s hard to objectivelyhook any real purpose to negate a deal of this nature.

Rebuild Memo

It’s onlythe second month of this baseball season, and the Orioles rebuild battle has reallyjust started. And it’s going to be a painful, interesting and fun time forOrioles fans.

The hiringof Mike Elias and his top assistant, Sig Mejdal, in November were the firststeps in the process. And while Brandon Hyde’s hiring was significant inDecember, the next really seminal date in Birdland is coming on June 3 as theOrioles get the No. 1 pick in the game.

And ifanything can be discerned from the early going in 2019, it’s that the Orioleshave a really good chance to also be picking first in the 2020 and ‘21 drafts.

In preparingfor my fantasy baseball draft in late March, a buddy of mine shared some infohe gets from a website called BaseballHQ.com,which creates valuations on players. Just like in fantasy baseball, startingpitching is the most dominant area you have to get your valuations correct. SoI thought it a worthwhile endeavor to lay out the black and white of when theOrioles can hope to be good again.

Let’s justlook at a few American teams and the valuations their starting rotations havevs. the hometown team. Let’s start with the Cleveland Indians, who obviouslyhave the best rotation in baseball — Kluber $41, Carrasco $31, Bauer $27,Clevinger $21 and Bieber $17, which totals $137.

Let’s lookat the defending World Series champions, the Boston Red Sox, who have a rotationcomprised of Chris Sale $46, David Price $21, Rick Porcello $15, EduardoRodriguez $12 and Nathan Eovaldi $9, adding up to $103; the Houston Astros(excluding free agent Dallas Keuchel) Justin Verlander $36, Gerrit Cole $29,Collin McHugh $12, Brad Peacock $11, Josh James a rookie at $11 and a kid whohas not thrown a single pitch in the majors, Forrest Whitley $3, and therecently acquired Wade Miley $2. That tallies $104. And finally, we’ll look atthe Tampa Bay Rays, who currently only list starting pitchers Blake Snell $28,Charlie Morton $18 and Tyler Glasnow $7 — which comes to a total of $53.

Now let’s look at the Orioles rotation and its BaseballHQ.com valuations: Dylan Bundy -$8, Alex Cobb -$3, Andrew Cashner -$11, Davis Hess -$7 and Josh Rogers -$6. Add those up and you get a total valuation of Orioles starters at -$18.

So justusing the Indians, the very best rotation there is in the game, the Orioles are$166 apart in valuation.

Even at$137, the Indians are not really all that close to winning a World Series. Theyare more realistically where the Orioles were a couple of years back – good butnot sustainable and looking to merely extend that window of contention thatkeeps fans engaged.

When theOrioles start having a rotation that is +$20-$30, then you’ll know things areturning around.

Stan “The Fan” Charles is founder andpublisher of PressBox.