Cuban players and their families have been kidnapped, held at gunpoint, threatened with torture, falsely jailed by corrupt police officers, and have endured other traumas at the hands of smugglers demanding money. “The reason that Cuban players are being smuggled out of Cuba is because they can’t voluntarily leave,” Halem said. (Nick Wass/Associated Press)As a result, according to testimony of his alleged accomplices, Hernandez started taking his Cuban players across the border to Haiti. But Halem, MLB’s legal officer, said investigating the residency documents Cuban players obtain in other countries is not under the league’s purview. Francona acknowledged he neither witnessed any Dodgers officials committing any crimes, nor did he have any direct evidence of any crimes.

Source: Washington Post May 23, 2019 13:02 UTC