9 players on Cuba’s U23 baseball team defect in Mexico

HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government has confirmed that nine of the 24 players on its national team at baseball’s U-23 World Cup defected during the tournament in Mexico. Cuban officials called the players’ actions “vile abandonments” in a note published Sunday by the web portal JIT, which is the official organ of the island’s National Sports Institute. The institute has not identified the players who stayed in Mexico. The defection of nine players is one of the biggest such losses by a Cuban team playing abroad. Cuban baseball players are often recruited by scouts looking to sign them to play with major league clubs, and the strained relations between the U.S. and Cuba prevents them from a regular hiring process.