When Cuba takes the field at the 2026 World Baseball Classic, Armando Johnson won’t be the manager.
Johnson, who took the helm of the national team in late 2022, managed Cuba to a second-place finish at the 2022 Caribbean Cup and the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games. He led Cuba to a championship at the 2023 Caribbean Cup, but wasn’t able to lead Cuba to a medal at the 2023 World Baseball Classic or the 2024 WBSC Premier12.
The move was announced during a press conference held by the Federacion Cubana de Beisbol y Softbol at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana on Tuesday in advance of the start of the third season of the Cuban Elite League, which will play a summer schedule in 2025 as the Serie Nacional returns to its traditional winter schedule.
Cuban Baseball Digest, the English-language arm of PelotaCubanaUSA, reported that longtime Isla de Juventud infielder Michel Enriquez is a candidate to replace Johnson.
Lenadores de Las Tunas Confirmed For Baseball Champions League Americas – At the same press event, the FCBS confirmed that the Lenadores de Las Tunas will represent the Serie Nacional at the 2025 Baseball Champions League Americas in Mexico City next month, though it will not be the same club that will be playing in the Cuban Elite League.
The Elite League season, which begins on March 15, will not pause while Las Tunas competes in the BCL Americas, though Las Tunas will not play from April 3-19.
The event, which will be played at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, the home of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol’s Diablos Rojos del Mexico, runs from April 8-13, though the Lenadores will bring a roster augmented by reinforcements from around the island.
“[They] will not be going with the team [they] have now to participate in the Elite League. We are analyzing this situation in detail and there will be reinforcements from other provinces,” the president of FCBS Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo said, according to Cuban media outlet JITDeportivo.
The Lenadores are grouped with Curacao’s Santa Maria Pirates and Puerto Rico’s Titanes de Florida for preliminary play at the BCL Americas.
The Invitation Has Yet to Arrive – According to JIT Deportivo, Reinaldo Perez Pardo said that Cuba has yet to be invited to the 2026 Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela.
“In the case of the league champion, it should be the one who represents us in next year’s Americas Series or in the Caribbean Series itself, in case we can attend,” JIT Deportivo quoted Perez as saying.
Cuba last played in the Caribbean Series in 2023, the last time the event was held in Caracas. Agricultores, who won the championship of the Cuban Elite League in its inaugural season, went 1-6 in preliminary play.
The Lenadores de Las Tunas, who won the 2024 Serie Nacional championship, played in the inaugural Serie de Las Americas in January, an event that was started as a parallel event to the Caribbean Series. Las Tunas finished tied for third, having lost in the semifinals to Nicaragua’s Leones de Leon. A consolation final was not played.
