New MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is only a few days into his term, but he's already looking at a budding controversy in how his league handles Cuban prospects.
Until recently, Cuban prospects were blocked from signing with MLB clubs until they had been cleared by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). That process was a bureaucratic maze and a total pain in the neck, but it usually worked out eventually.
According to Ben Badler of Baseball America, that process isn't what's holding up Yoan Moncada's deal, and the red tape around the Cuban phenom is actually MLB's doing:
The holdup is that MLB won’t let Moncada—or any Cuban player, for that matter—use the general license any more. That wasn’t always the case. Yasiel Puig, for example, signed using the general license. It’s not clear what exactly changed, but at some point in 2012 after Puig signed in June that year, MLB no longer allowed Cuban players to sign using the general license and instead required them to apply for the specific license, which is a written document from OFAC. That goes beyond what the government requires from Cuban players to be able to begin their careers, and with some players waiting six months to receive their licenses, MLB’s policy has added a significant bottleneck for those players.
The Yankees are one of several teams very interested in Moncada, and they had also registered interest in 2B Hector Moncada, another player reportedly cleared by the OFAC but not MLB's internal guidelines. Yankees GM Brian Cashman already has his hands full - his team needs help in several key areas, and there's also a looming legal showdown with Alex Rodriguez over bonus money - so this added headache courtesy of MLB is really something Cashman could do without.
More Yankees Rumors
Back to the New York Yankees Newsfeed