José "Pito" Abreu Will Not Participate in a Possible Independent Baseball Team

March 26, 2022

Cuban José "Pito" Abreu made clear before ESPN cameras that he will not be part of a possible Independent Team, made up of Caribbean players who work at the professional level to participate in the World Baseball Classic. In this way, the 2020 MVP distanced himself from the project promoted by the Association of Cuban Professional Baseball Players.

"I have always agreed that a unified team be made with Cuban players and with players from here, I am totally available for those things but what also happens is that there is talk of a team that wants to be made in Miami, and I said that I would not be on that team because I also respect those who are in Cuba," Pito Abreu told Ernesto Jerez.

Likewise, the player from Cienfuegos defended his position, as it is "my point of view, which should be respected just as I also respect that of each person. What happens with this is that it is very delicate. Hopefully it happens, but so far nothing has been finalized. Hopefully in what is left of my career, God willing a couple more years, the necessary things happen so that I can represent our Cuba again."

"We know all the political things that exist, in which we should not speak because we don't know, but I would like to be on that unified team with the players who are in Cuba and with those who are here. That for me would be one of the biggest surprises that life could give me," Abreu added.

The initiative of the Association of Cuban Professional Baseball Players seeks to bring together in one team those figures of Cuban baseball who cannot be part of the team that participates in the World Classics due to the loss of their ties with INDER, the organization that governs sports on the island.