Cesar Prieto, a potential Cuban, leaves the national team as soon as he arrives in the United States

The Cuban Mediator Cesar Prieto Team authorities said Wednesday evening that the delegation left his country upon his arrival in the United States to participate in the baseball preliminary match for the Olympic Games, which begins next Monday.

Prieto, at the age of 22, is widely considered one of the best young players in his country today. The left-handed second base man and the .403 hitter hit 318 in the bat with Cienfuegos elephants In the 2020-21 season of the Cuban National Series, he has scored 0.370 in 157 matches since 2017.

“His decision, contrary to the commitment he made with the people and the team, generated disaffection among his colleagues and other members of the delegation, ready to overcome the logical effect of an event outside the majority that would be loyal to the country and the government.” The Cuban Baseball Federation said in a statement, “The mission we traveled to attend the event.”

“We consider it appropriate to recall that the encouragement of this type of behavior has constituted the numerous aggression against our sport, victim of the actions of merchants and human traffickers favored by the decision of the United States government to suspend the agreement aimed at normalizing the inclusion of our players in the MLB arenas.

The US baseball qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics will take place Monday through Saturday of next week at the Major League Spring baseball training grounds in Port St. Lucy and West Palm Beach, Florida.

Cuba will compete in Group B, along with Canada, Colombia and Venezuela, while the United States, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic will compete in Group A of the tournament, which will distribute a ticket to Tokyo and two places to the last qualifiers. , To be held in Mexico at a later time.