In a press release, the Cuban Baseball Federation pointed out that Rodriguez chose to break his contract with the Softbank Halks team of the Japan Professional League and stay in the United States.

The press release noted that the Havana-born pitcher remained in Florida, the venue of the Baseball Americas Qualifier 2021, where he was waiting for the date agreed for his transfer to Japan, but he did not show up at the airport.

The text condemns the player’s attitude that transgresses the commitments to the Softbank Hawks team and the Cuban Federation, under which his link with the Japanese team was made official.

On the other hand, the baseball federation informed that Alfredo Despaigne, Livan Moinelo, Raidel Martinez and Yariel Rodriguez did start the trip to Japan to continue their performances within the Softbank Hawks and Chunichi Dragons teams, respectively. The national federation denounced that in the midst of the sustained aggression against Cuban sports, the disabling of the agreement aimed at normalizing the participation of players in the US Major Leagues constitutes a stimulus for trafficking with athletes. jg/abo/mem/yma