Members of the Cuban national baseball team before a game in 2016. Thirty-four Cuban players had been eligible to sign with U.S. teams this year. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)The Trump administration Monday declared illegal a December deal between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation that would have allowed Cuban athletes to play in this country without having to defect. “They felt profound concern about the danger in terms of human trafficking that Cuban baseball players were subjected to to try to play in the major leagues. But a letter sent to league attorneys Friday by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said the baseball deal was now prohibited.

Source: Washington Post April 08, 2019 19:17 UTC