Minor League Names To Know: Cuban Signees

Names to Know – Cuban Minor League Players

This will be the first of a new series I’ll be doing each week exploring players who may be less publicized or lesser known that could be of importance.

Now, not all these guys will be completely under the radar as each one of these posts will have a theme to them. But even then, if I’m mentioning them in one of these pieces, it’s because even though the player is known, the publicity around them isn’t quite what I feel it should be for their talent level.

Today’s focus is on the minor leagues. In 1961, Fidel Castro halted travel Cuban visas to the United States and forced any player that wanted to play major league baseball to have to defect from the country and disown his home land in order to pursue his dream. Recently, we’ve seen an influx of very good players from the small island, including Juan Abreu, Yoenis Cespedes, and Yasiel Puig.

Currently, there are a number of players in the minor leagues who are former Cubans and working their way to the major leagues. We’re going to highlight a few of them over the next few slides.

Next: A Superstar in the Making