Misael Silverio, a 24-year-old left-handed pitcher for Villa Clara, has defected from the Cuban national baseball team ahead of a series against US college players.
Silverio left the squad from the team’s hotel on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s opener of the series in Des Moines, Iowa, and says he hopes to one day play Major League Baseball.
US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida confirmed the defection on Twitter, saying, “2day pitcher Misael Siver defected hours after arriving in US. Welcome 2 freedom!”
Silverio said he did not make the decision to defect without some heavy soul searching.
“It is not easy leaving behind what is yours, but after a giving it a lot of thought I made this decision for my future and for my family,” Silverio told the Miami Herald.
“My dream, of course, is to make the major leagues, and starting today I will start doing what I need to do to accomplish that.”
Silverio had a 1.90 earned-run average and kept opposing batters to a .245 average this season.
Two pitchers who defected from Cuba played in Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game — Cincinnati’s Aroldis Chapman, who left the Communist island nation in 2009, and Miami’s Jose Fernandez, who defected in 2008.
And Cuban-born Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, who defected in 2011, won the Home Run Derby title on Tuesday, the first slugger from his homeland to do so.
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, who signed a seven-year deal worth $42 million last year after leaving Cuba, is batting .391 with eight home runs and 59 hits in 38 games.
And many teams are looking at Cuban talent.
Cuban 26-year-old right-handed pitcher Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez, who fled Cuban earlier this year for El Salvador and has worked out in Mexico since then, reportedly has seven major league teams interested in signing him and many scouts believing he could have an impact for a team in the last two months of the current season.
Dalier Hinojosa, a 27-year-old right-handed pitcher from Cuba, and 26-year-old right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne, who is seeking free agency, are also candidates for the major leagues, as is 19-year-old Cuban right-hander Leandro Linares.
Cuban pitcher defects in USA
