The Cuban government, through the Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB), obtained more than $2.3 million in 2025 from the contracts of its players hired in foreign leagues, a revenue stream that highlights the commodification of sports talent under state control and questionable priorities in the use of funds.
According to official sports journalist Pavel Otero, the FCB receives between 10 and 20% for each athlete contracted abroad.
This percentage, he underlined, is not deducted from the pelotero’s salary, but is paid directly by the contracting clubs to the Federation, leaving the athletes’ earnings intact.
For example, a player who receives 500 thousand dollars generates an additional payment to the FCB corresponding to the agreed percentage, without affecting his salary.
The detail of the 2.3 million dollars raised reveals a mostly administrative and operational fate, with expenses that include:
$565,256 in Liga Elite and Serie Nacional apparel.
$297,619 in balls for all categories.
$35,400 in training shoes and referees.
$11,095 in installments for collateral and members.
3,000 USD in shoes for the under-12 World Cup.
$74,062 for umpire apparel and $7,453 for National Softball Championship apparel.
$62,577 in wooden bats and $14,222 in batting gloves.
$539,412 in apparel for the upcoming Liga Elite and Serie Nacional, ordered in advance.
$536,900 in airfare and logistics expenses for 17 international events.
USD 119,000 in Béisbol 5 playing surfaces, equipment and prizes.
$210,000 in KENKO baseballs for children’s baseball.
98,000 USD for equipment and qualification of the first level gymnasium of the Latin American Stadium.
Additionally, there are pending expenses earmarked for lighting for four stadiums, as well as sports equipment, gymnasiums, batting cages and throwing machines, as well as contributions to other less-funded sports.
This pattern highlights how the regime directly benefits from the international mobility of its athletes, a mechanism that has been criticized as a form of economic exploitation and control over sporting talent.
In 2019, the FCB has signed an agreement allowing players and coaches to be contracted abroadexpressly excluding Major League Baseball (MLB), due to the restrictions imposed by the US administration following the embargo and the fact that FCB continues to be part of the state apparatus.
In 2018, a similar agreement signed during Barack Obama’s government based on an alleged autonomy of the FCB it allowed the negotiation of Cuban players in the United States.
But the Donald Trump’s administration canceled it months laterarguing that the Federation was state-controlled and that contracts with MLB required special licenses from the Treasury Department.
The American measure aimed to prevent the Cuban regime from using players as economic pawns, a charge reiterated by officials such as John Bolton and Senator Marco Rubio, who denounced how these contracts amounted to a state “ransom” of athletes, legalizing what they considered human trafficking.
The case highlights a contrast: while Cuban baseball players generate millions for the Federation and, consequently, the government, direct investment in the social development and living conditions of athletes and citizens is limited, reflecting questionable priorities and a system that puts state revenues before the well-being of athletes.