The MLB wants to make it easier for Cuban players to join the league

Closer ties between MLB and Cuba.
(Image credit: Al Bello/Getty Images)

Major League Baseball is trying to make it easier for Cuban players to join, The New York Times reports. As it stands now, Cuban prospects must either play for as low as $40 per month in local leagues, or cut ties with their home country to join the MLB.

Though the U.S. and Cuba have been restoring diplomatic ties, an embargo still prohibits U.S. companies and citizens from doing business in the nation. But the league's new proposal would theoretically skirt the embargo by forming a nonprofit-esque entity of Cuban entrepreneurs and MLB officials that would support youth baseball in the country. No money would go to the Cuban government.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.