Cuban pitcher Andy Rodriguez applied for political asylum in the United States, the portal reported on Thursday Cuban ball. The former Industrial Closer was the fourth member of the Island delegation who, after attending the Baseball Pre-Olympic Games held in Florida last June, decided to stay in that country.
Rodriguez, 22, “will not travel to a third country to apply for a residency and thus choose to be declared an International Free Agent,” said the team representing the player.
The habanero will choose to enter the Amateur Draft, which is a Major League mechanism by which players are assigned to high schools, universities and other clubs and where the best candidates are selected to be part of the professional teams. Thus, Rodriguez will play a first season with Miami Dade College, he reported in his account Twitter the sports journalist Yordano Carmona.
The player’s representative, Carlos Pérez, confirmed that including him in the Amateur Draft is aimed at professional baseball. “One of the facilities that this decision gives us is that we don’t have to leave Miami and that the player can focus more on the sport and be close to his family,” Perez said.
“One of the facilities that this decision gives us is not to have to leave Miami and for the player to be able to focus more on the sport and be close to his family.”
After learning in June that Rodriguez would not return to the Japanese Professional Baseball League, where he represented the Falcons of SoftBank and where he came for a contract from the Cuban Baseball Federation, the magazine Complete Swing has noted that “he was the only pitcher in the capital with international participation in the last five years”, as well as “one of the most excellent relievers after his ostensible progression in season 59 in which he was the best lid closure “.
The publication also pointed out that the launcher has marked up to 95 miles, and “also has a fairly effective slider.” In the Florida Pre-Olympics he recorded up to 97 miles when he made his debut against Venezuela, in a clash where he had to start from the fifth inning to replace Bryan Chi.
For its part, Cuban ball detailed that in the last National Series of the Island, Rodriguez worked 48 entrances with record of 5-5 with 12 saves, besides showing an effectiveness of 2.25 and to strike to 59 batters.
Rodriguez’s decision comes in the wake of leaks from Cuban athletes. The most recent was that of judokas Ayumi Leyva and Nahomys Acosta, who left the island’s delegation last month during a stopover in Madrid, Spain. The athletes were going to participate in the qualifier for the Pan American Junior Games in Cali (Colombia), but never made it to the event.
At the end of June, the athlete Raudelis Guerra also left the basketball delegation in Spain, on the way to the qualifying tournament for the World Cup, which took place in El Salvador. Guerra fled the entourage at Madrid-Barajas Airport itself, where part of the national team made a stopover to continue on to the Central American country.
Nearly a month earlier, there were other cases of desertions of athletes and collaborators who were part of the Cuban entourage at the Pre-Olympic Baseball in Florida. In addition to Rodíguez, second baseman César Prieto, pitcher Lázaro Blanc and Jorge Sile Figueroa, the team’s psychologist, left the delegation.
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