Last week, President Obama authorized the elimination of a ban on Cuban access to the international banking system, which in turn would allow a Cuban national to make a living in the United States without requiring that person to emigrate. As a result, the door now is open for Cuban baseball players to legally play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) club while maintaining a permanent residence in Cuba.
Previously, a Cuban national wanting to sign with an MLB franchise as a free agent was required to first take up residence outside of Cuba and then obtain a specific license from the United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Specifically, under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (the Regulations), Cuban nationals who took up permanent residence outside of Cuba were required to apply to OFAC for a specific license to become an “unblocked national” authorized to do business with companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction, such as an MLB club. Many MLB clubs, however, viewed the requirement as unduly burdensome because it could take up to a year to obtain a specific license, which sometimes resulted in a year of not playing baseball with a MLB franchise.
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