With the 2026 World Baseball Classic just over three months away, Cuba is looking to bring talent from Major League Baseball and the affiliated minor leagues back into the fold for the event.
The island nation’s baseball program traditionally has not allowed players who defected from the national team to return to represent Cuba, though faced with a persistent talent drain and results they deem less than acceptable in recent international competitions, it would appear that policy is being reexamined.
Among the players the Federacion Cubana Beisbol y Softbol is trying to bring back is Yariel Rodriguez, according to a post on X by PelotaCubanaUSA’s Yusseff Diaz.
Fuentes: La FCB y el gobierno cubano han estado considerando discretamente levantarle la sanción a Yariel Rodríguez, posiblemente abriéndole la puerta al derecho para participar con Cuba en el venidero Clásico Mundial de Béisbol.
#pelotacubana #WBC pic.twitter.com/ijDc1Ralvr
— Yusseff305 🇨🇺🇺🇲 (@yusseff305) November 10, 2025
Rodriguez, 29, has played two seasons in MLB with Toronto since leaving Cuba in 2023, when went to the Dominican Republic in hopes of signing an MLB contract. From 2020-22, he played for the Chunichi Dragons in Nippon Professional Baseball, but abandoned the contract the FCBS had negotiated with Chunichi when he went to the Dominican Republic and was declared an MLB free agent.
With the Blue Jays, Rodriguez has developed into a workhorse reliever, making 66 appearances in relief in 2025 after seeing duty after making 24 starts in 2024. In total, Rodriguez has thrown 159 2/3 innings across 87 appearances with a 3.83 ERA and a 1.240 WHIP. Rodriguez started two games for Cuba during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, recording a 2.45 ERA and throwing 7.1 innings, allowing five hits, two earned runs, walking six batters, and striking out 10 with a 1.50 WHIP. He helped Cuba reach the semifinals at loanDepot Park in Miami, where they lost to the United States 14-2.
Similarly, a story from CiberCuba.com suggested that Athletics minor league pitcher Yunior Tur is under consideration by the FCBS for the 2026 WBC. While Tur has yet to appear at the Major League level, he had success during the 2025 at High-A and Double-A, throwing 113 innings at the two levels with a 2.93 ERA. He struggled in three starts with Triple-A Las Vegas, throwing 12 2/3 innings and allowing nine earned runs on 11 hits.
On Monday, a facebook post by Cuban Baseball Digest said that lefty Julio Robaina, a 24-year-old native of San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba, with experience at the Triple-A level in the Houston Astros organization, would be available, as would Los Angeles Angels minor league righty Jorge Marcheco and New York Mets minor league lefty Daviel Hurtado.
Robaina pitched in the Astros’ system form 2018-24, making the bulk of his appearances at Double-A Corpus Christi, where he threw 258 2/3 innings in 63 appearances over parts of three seasons. He split 2025 between Kansas City in the independent American Association, where made one start, and Quintana Roo in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, where he threw 71 innings in 16 appearances and 12 starts with a 3.17 ERA.
Marcheco made 25 appearances and 10 starts at High-A Tri-City in the Angels’ chain, throwing 77 innings with 77 strikeouts and a 4.44 ERA, and got his first taste of Double-A action, making two starts with Rocket City, where he threw 7 2/3 innings with a 3.52 ERA and seven strikeouts.
Hurtado, 20, pitched in the Florida Complex League and for Low-A St. Lucie in 2025, throwing 65 2/3 total innings with a 2.70 ERA.
Photo: Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Yariel Rodríguez throws against the Seattle Mariners during the eighth inning in Game 3 of baseball’s American League Championship Series, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
