Juan Francisco Puello Herrera has been the Commissioner of the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe since 1991, but the next two winter ball seasons will be his last two at the helm of the organization.
On Tuesday morning, the CBPC announced that Puello Herrera, the Dominican lawyer who has served Commissioner since 1991, will retire in July 2027, concluding decades of service as the top man in Caribbean baseball.
The CBPC is an umbrella organization that governs winter professional baseball in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, with each country’s respective league holding membership in the organization. It oversees the annual Caribbean Series, which has been played every year since 1970 with the exception of 1981, and the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame.
Under Puello Herrera’s leadership, the CBPC established the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996, and has inducted players into the hall at each Caribbean Series since. Since 2009, the CBPC has inducted individuals from the host country each year, with Mexican baseball executive Alvaro Ley and former Major Leaguer Karim Garcia, who appeared in Garcia participated in six Caribbean Series for Mexico and won two in 2011 and 2013 with Yaquis de Obregón, inducted at the 2025 Caribbean Series in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico.
His tenure also saw the expansion of winter baseball’s jewel event beyond the champions of the four member leagues. In 2014, the Naranjas de Villa Clara, that year’s champion of the Serie Nacional de Cuba, played in the Caribbean Series, marking the first time that a Cuban team had appeared at the event since 1960 when the Elefantes de Cienfuegos won the championship. Cuba’s Vegueros de Pinar del Rio won the 2015 Caribbean title, the first for the island nation in 55 years.
Panama returned to the Caribbean Series in 2019 for the first time since 1960, when the country hosted the event at Estadio Rod Carew in Panama City, and the Toros de Herrera, who won Panama’s ProBeis championship, defeated Cuba’s Lenadores de Las Tunas to win Panama’s first Caribbean Series title.
The Caribbean Series welcomed Colombia for the first time in 2020, with the Vaqueros de Monteria representing the Liga Beisbol Profesional Colombiano, and in 2022, the Caimanes de Barranquilla won the championship game with a 4-1 win over the Dominican Republic’s Gigantes del Cibao.
In 2023, the Caribbean Series was an eight-team event for the first time, with Colombia, Panama, and Cuba returning as invitees and Curacao participating for the first time.
A year later, the Caribbean Series returned to Miami after 33 years and was held in a Major League Baseball venue, loanDepot Park, for the first time, with Nicaragua appearing as a first-time invitee and setting a record for both single-game and total attendance. Under Puello’s guidance, the CBPC has since signed a deal with the Miami Marlins to bring the Caribbean Series back to loanDepot Park in 2028-30.
At last year’s Caribbean Series, the Japan Breeze, managed by Venezuelan former Major League Alex Ramirez, became the Caribbean Series’ first participant from Asia.
The CBPC’s President of the Board of Directors, along with the Executive Secretary and Puello himself, will search for a new President, who would have to be approved by the CBPC’s Assembly.
Photo: Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, Commissioner of the CBPC, addresses the media at a press conference in Caracas, Venezuela, in August 2025. (Photo courtesy of the CPBC)
