“They give you MLC and they keep the real money, the hard money,” said the first baseman, who ‘defected’ in Canada
14ymedio, Havana, 13 February 2025 — Payments in dollars received by Cuban players in Japan cannot be transferred to an account in Cuba without being transformed into MLC (freely convertible currency). This was the “discovery” denounced this Wednesday by the Cuban first-baseman Guillermo García, who played in a team from the Japan until he was hired in Canada last year, and deserted shortly after.
“When I managed to send something it arrived in MLC,” he told the specialized media Pelota Cubana, about a problem that affects thousands of Cubans who send remittances to their families on the Island. “They give you credit and keep the real (money), the hard currency.”
The grandson of General Guillermo García, one of the historic figures of the Regime, a player from Granma province, who is now in the Dominican Republic, traveled to Japan in 2022 through the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) to join the Dragones de Chunichi club, in exchange for 100,000 dollars. There he played two seasons for the Japanese team and received a proportional part of the agreed amount every month.
“When I managed to send something it arrived in MLC,” he told Pelota Cubana, about a problem that affects thousands of Cubans who send remittances to the Island
He made several money transfers to Cuba, always in the same way, until several Cuban baseball players – including the famous Alfredo Despaigne – recommended “not to send any dollars to Cuba.” The ideal, García said, is to “carry the money in cash” or send it with a mule, a more complicated process but much less expensive than transactions to a Cuban account in MLC.
García also highlighted the difficulties that Cubans have in opening an account with a Japanese bank. As in other countries of the world, the fear of being sanctioned by Washington for making transactions linked to Cuba remains an obstacle.
Also, with the help of Inder in June 2024, García transferred to the Canadian team Capitales de Quebec of the Frontier League, an independent league that is developed between Canada and the United States. “When I signed there was a bonus of $50,000 that they added to my contract (of $100,000),” he said.
Inder keeps 20% of the contract of its athletes. Last December, the state entity negotiated the participation of baseball player Raidel Martínez for four seasons with the Yomiuri Giants in exchange for $32,500,000. From that money, Inder retained $6,500,000, more than $1,600,000 per season.
Carlos Monier, Liván Moinelo, Frank Abel Álvarez, Cristian Rodríguez, Darío Sarduy and Ariel Martínez are in the Japanese Baseball League. Two other players are in Mexico, six in Italy and four more in Canada.
According to coach Julio Estrada, the Cuban Baseball Federation can directly negotiate agreements with the teams that hire their athletes. However, in the case of “large contracts,” the Island has the support of “a Japanese lawyer,” he told Pelota Cubana. Unlike agents looking for better salaries, “the Federation limits itself to listening to the offer the player will receive” and passes the document on to the player to sign. “Inder doesn’t even know about the negotiation; it is only informed about what the player is going to deposit into his account so that it can collect the commission.”
The “low salaries” led the athletes of Ciego de Ávila, Osvaldo Vázquez, Rubén Valdés, Alexander Jiménez, Gustavo Brito and Liosvany Pérez to request their dismissal
Salary has been a hot topic among the Island’s players. Last month, the Artemis athlete Yuniesky García called on his teammates to join him to “expose that the salary is not in accordance with so much work and sacrifice” that they face every day.
Recently, the “low salaries” led the athletes of Ciego de Ávila, Osvaldo Vázquez, Rubén Valdés, Alexander Jiménez, Gustavo Brito and Liosvany Pérez to ask for their exclusion from the payroll. With the salary of “3,500 pesos I can’t support my family,” Vázquez told Pelota Cubana USA. As a trainer, the athlete would earn only 5,000 pesos, less than 15 dollars per month at the informal exchange rate.
In the same vein, baseball player Dennis Laza said: “Really the conditions of the Elite League these two years and the salary we earn do not seem elite.” He argued that this was a reason not to leave his work with the under-12 category of San José.
“I know that there are many people in other provinces who are upset with the position I took at the time, but if they were in the place of many of us and earned what we earn, without anyone to stand up for them against the injustices that happen, they would understand a little more,” he stressed. “If when your work is always the best you can do for your country and they belittle what you do with love, then you would understand why we who are affected are proceeding in this way.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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