Email a copy of 'Cuban Prospect Luis Yander La O Defects' to a friend
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By Jeff Todd | at
Email a copy of 'Cuban Prospect Luis Yander La O Defects' to a friend
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thecoffinnail
I wonder how establishing residency works these days.. Before the thawing of U.S. and Cuba relations all a Cuban had to do was get to American soil and they could get asylum.. Now I do not know if that is still in affect.. I read the article linked in this column and it states “La O will have to establish residence in a foreign country and then apply to the commissioner’s office to make him a free agent, a process that will take several months before he will be allowed to sign.” But since he defected while in North Carolina and since they used the word defected wouldn’t he still be able to get political asylum here? By doing that he should be able to cut the time it takes to being declared a free agent by quite a bit.. I did a bit of internet mining and all I could find so far were older articles relating to players from the 90’s.. ” The exodus began in earnest in 1991, when René Arocha, a pitcher with the Cuban national team, walked off an airplane that made an emergency stop in Miami, and, in short order, stepped into a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals, for whom he pitched from 1993 through 1995.” Taken from latinamericanstudies.org/sports/cost.htm If somebody could clarify the new rules for me, I would appreciate it greatly..
thecoffinnail
Also, I am aware about how the players need to register with MLB by May to be available for signing but if I remember that only applies to players born after 1994 or 95.. So, La O being 23 should exclude him from that requirement.. But again I might be mistaking and I could probably use a lesson here..
thecoffinnail
Going from the stats that I could find about him he seems to be very similar to a young Martin Prado.. This is a player that I hope the Yankees go after hard.. “.327/.404/.401 with two home runs, 35 walks and 15 strikeouts in 340 plate appearances.” Very similar to Prado’s age 24 season.. Plus, he plays 3rd, 2nd and some SS..