HAVANA - Two brothers from Cuba’s preeminent baseball family have abandoned a Cuban team traveling in the Dominican Republic, presumably to defect and later seek professional careers in the United States, official Cuban media reported on Monday.
Yulieski Gurriel, 31, and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., 22, left the hotel where a Cuban team had been staying “in full attitude of surrender to the merchants of for-profit professional baseball,” the report said.
There were a record 150 baseball defections in Cuba last year, according to Cuban journalist Francys Romero, but the Gurriel brothers would be an exceptional loss because of their fame and because Yulieski had always been seen as a loyal player who had shunned potential riches in the United States.