Cuba has named a 45-player pre-selection for the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup, which Nicaragua hosts from 6 to 15 November. The list was published on 10 September and carried across the island’s press. Almost none of it has appeared in English, and the part that matters most has not been reported in English at all: the draw has put Cuba in the harder of the two opening-round groups, alongside three of the six highest-ranked teams in the tournament.
A 45-man pre-selection, not a team
The squad announced on 10 September breaks down as six catchers, 11 infielders, eight outfielders and 20 pitchers — the same sentence appears verbatim in Escambray and Prensa Latina: “El grupo reúne seis receptores, 11 jugadores de cuadro, ocho jardineros y 20 lanzadores.” Guillermo Carmona manages.
It is worth being precise about what this list is, because Cuban roster announcements are routinely reported abroad as finished teams. This is a preselección — a training group that will be cut down before Cuba travels. Nobody on it is guaranteed a place in Nicaragua.
Three of them are currently playing in Japan
The most interesting detail in the announcement is one the Cuban outlets mention in passing. Three members of the pre-selection are not in Cuba: Jonathan Moreno, a shortstop from Villa Clara, and pitchers Darío Sarduy (Villa Clara) and Randy Román Martínez (Pinar del Río) are all playing in Japan, and are expected to join the group later rather than at the start of camp.
That is a small fact with a large shape behind it. A decade ago a Cuban player under contract abroad was, in practice, a player the national team could not call on. The federation’s arrangements with Japanese clubs have changed that, and the clearest evidence of where the route leads sits at the top of the professional game: the two best Cuban pitchers alive are both in Japan, not the major leagues. Raidel Martínez became the first foreign-born pitcher to reach 250 saves in NPB on 10 September, and he and Liván Moinelo have between them made a stronger case for the Japanese route than any Cuban player has made in years. Moreno, Sarduy and Román are at the bottom of that same ladder.
Cuba’s opening-round fixtures
Cuba play all five Group B opponents between 6 and 10 November. This fixture list has not been published in English anywhere we can find.
| Date | Opponent | WBSC world ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 6 Nov | Korea | 4 |
| Sat 7 Nov | South Africa | 23 |
| Sun 8 Nov | Japan | 1 |
| Mon 9 Nov | Venezuela | 5 |
| Tue 10 Nov | Great Britain | 19–20 |
The tournament uses three venues — the Soberanía National Stadium in Managua, the new Roberto Clemente Stadium in Masaya and the Rigoberto López Pérez Stadium in León. Cuba open against Korea in León. Do not trust a first-pitch time you read anywhere but the WBSC schedule page: the opener was announced at 18:00 local in June and currently sits at 20:00, and other slots have moved with it.
The top three in each group go through to the Super Round on 12, 13 and 14 November. The other six teams play off for places 7–12. The bronze medal game and the World Championship Final are both on Sunday 15 November at the Soberanía.
Our reading: Cuba drew the hard half
The two groups are not balanced, and it is worth spelling out how unbalanced they are, because nobody covering this in Spanish has said it plainly.
Group B holds three of the world’s top five: Japan at No. 1, Korea at No. 4 and Venezuela at No. 5. Group A holds one — Chinese Taipei at No. 2 — alongside Puerto Rico, Panama, Australia, Czechia and hosts Nicaragua. Japan are the two-time defending champions.
Cuba are the fourth-ranked team in their own group, and three teams ranked above them are chasing the same three Super Round places. The arithmetic is unforgiving without being hopeless. Cuba should beat Great Britain and South Africa, the two lowest-ranked teams in the group; that is a realistic 2–3 finish. Reaching 3–2 means taking a game from Japan, Korea or Venezuela. At 2–3, Cuba’s Super Round place probably comes down to a tiebreaker against whichever of those three has the worst week.
A Group A team can reach the Super Round at 2–3 without beating anyone ranked in the world’s top ten. Cuba have no such margin.
What happens next
The pre-selection now goes into camp and will be cut to a travelling roster before November. The three players in Japan are expected to join once their club seasons end.
The nearer date is domestic. The 65th Serie Nacional opens on Sunday 4 October (our guide, in Spanish) under a new two-zone, 44-game format, and it is the league most of these 45 players will spend October in. How they perform there is the last evidence Carmona gets before he picks the team that flies to Managua — which makes the opening weeks of the Serie Nacional worth watching this year for reasons that have nothing to do with the pennant.
Sources and what we left out
The roster size and positional breakdown are taken from Escambray and Prensa Latina, which print the same sentence. The group composition, venues, format and world rankings are from the WBSC’s own announcements and its live schedule page. Cuba’s fixture dates are confirmed by Escambray and by the WBSC schedule.
Three things circulating in the Cuban coverage are not in this article, because we could only find them in one outlet each and could not confirm them: the training-camp dates and locations, the names of the provincial contingents, and a second figure for the size of the pre-selection. One regional outlet’s report works out to 54 players rather than 45; the 45 figure is the one that appears verbatim in two independent sources, so it is the one we have used. We will update this piece when the federation publishes the travelling roster.
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