Andy Rodriguez becomes 4th member of Cuban Baseball federation delegation to the US

Cuba‘s baseball delegation that is supposed to leave for the US for the qualifying tournament of the Olympics in Florida. According to the country’s baseball federation, the most famous pitcher Andy Rodriguez became its 4th member to join the delegation.

The delegation failed to qualify in Olympics for the first time in its history and also lost the match from Venezuela and Canada as two top players, and 1 psychologist of the team had already left the delegation during the event.

Rodriguez, 22, chose to play from the Cuban Baseball Federation as he breaks the contract made with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan to play with them, and they were all set to leave for the US on Monday. the Cuban Baseball Federation stated this in their one of the statement.

Rodriguez only signed with Fukuoka in January but “didn’t happen at the airport,” the FCB said within the statement, published in state media. Before him, Cesar Prieto, one of Cuba’s top talents, defected on May 26, just a couple of hours after arriving in Florida.

Then on Thursday, team psychologist Jorge Sile Figueroa left the delegation, a source told AFP, and therefore the next day, Cuba’s top pitcher Lazaro Blanco announced he’d quit the team and would stay within the us.

“What’s important is that I’m happy the choice I’ve taken is true, I’m getting to start a replacement life now,” the 35-year-old Blanco told Telemundo 51 in Miami.

Baseball is Cuba’s national sport. Therefore, the Caribbean nation has won three Olympic titles and 25 World Cups, so its failure to even qualify for the Tokyo Games was a shock.

On July 8 2014, after scoring a career-best 11 goals, Andy signed a one-year effect Segunda División’s SD Ponferradina. He played his first match as knowledgeable on August 24, starting during a 1–0 home win against CD Tenerife.