Pinar del Río announced its 32-man roster for the 65th Serie Nacional on Tuesday 15 September. Fourteen of the 32 places went to pitchers, and two of those fourteen were Liván Moinelo and Raidel Martínez — arguably the two best Cuban pitchers alive, and both of them will be in Japan when the Cuban season opens on 4 October.
That is not an error, and in Cuba it is not even a story. It is simply how a Serie Nacional roster works. But it is almost never explained in English, and it is the reason a Cuban roster sheet cannot be read the way an MLB Opening Day roster is read.
What Pinar del Río actually announced
The list was read out at an official ceremony in the province, attended by the first secretary of the Communist Party in Pinar del Río, Yamilé Ramos Cordero, and the governor, Eumelín González Sánchez. Alfonso Urquiola returns as manager, with Jesús Bosmenier as pitching coach and Joselián Cejas and Donal Duarte among his assistants.
The squad averages 26.8 years of age and includes four rookies, divided into three catchers, nine infielders, six outfielders and fourteen pitchers. Two outlets published the full list on the same day — JIT, the national sports daily, and Guerrillero, the Pinar del Río provincial paper — and the two versions agree on all 32 names. They differ only in spelling: JIT’s “Jenier Álvarez” is Guerrillero’s “Genier Álvarez Camejo”.
The fourteen pitchers
| Pitcher | Status for Serie Nacional 65 |
|---|---|
| Liván Moinelo | Under contract, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks (NPB) |
| Raidel Martínez | Under contract, Yomiuri Giants (NPB) |
| Erly Casanova | Returns after a year out of the game |
| Frank Luis Medina | Listed |
| Frank Abel Álvarez | Listed |
| Randy Martínez | Listed |
| Jenier / Genier Álvarez | Listed |
| Frank Denis Blanco | Listed |
| Gabriel Cantero | Listed |
| Yancarlos García | Listed |
| Yosvani Martínez | Listed |
| Mario Luis del Hoyo | Listed |
| Osmar Forteza | Listed |
| Leidel González | Listed |
Where Moinelo and Martínez actually are
Both men are on Nippon Professional Baseball rosters and both have pitched in Japan this month. These are their 2026 lines as recorded in NPB’s official register:
| Pitcher | NPB club (2026) | G | W-L | SV | IP | SO | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liván Moinelo | Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks | 6 | 5-1 | 0 | 41.1 | 32 | 0.87 |
| Raidel Martínez | Yomiuri Giants | 53 | 5-4 | 39 | 49.0 | 53 | 1.29 |
Moinelo’s six appearances are not a sign of decline. He lost the first four months of 2026 to a problem in his left shoulder and did not throw a competitive pitch until 11 August; since returning he has made six starts, two of them complete games and one a shutout, and won five of them. We covered his fifth win of the season on 17 September. Martínez, meanwhile, passed 250 career saves in Japan on 10 September and is one of the most dependable closers in the Central League. The longer case for both men is in our piece on the two best Cuban pitchers being in Japan.
The timing is the point. NPB’s 2026 regular season is still running, with league fixtures scheduled into the first week of October, and the Climax Series and Japan Series follow it into November. The Serie Nacional’s 44-game regular season will be well advanced before either pitcher’s Japanese season has finished.
Why a province lists players who will not be there
A place on a Serie Nacional roster is a declaration of where a player belongs — his province, his affiliation, his standing in Cuban baseball. It is not, by itself, a commitment that he will appear in a game. Nothing in the Pinar del Río announcement says Moinelo or Martínez will play, and nothing says they will not.
Granma, announcing its own squad three days later, made the distinction explicit. Manager Marcos Naranjo told the provincial paper La Demajagua on 18 September that outfielder Raico Santos, who is currently living in Mexico, had shown willingness to join the team in the event that it reached the play-offs, because of his commitments to foreign leagues. Pinar del Río’s announcement carried no equivalent note about either of its two pitchers in Japan.
It already happened last season
This is not hypothetical. In December 2025, with Pinar del Río chasing a play-off place in the 64th Serie Nacional, there was open talk in Cuba that Moinelo and Martínez might join the squad for the postseason once the Japanese season ended. Moinelo ruled it out himself, speaking to journalist Guillermo Rodríguez at the gala for Cuba’s best athletes of 2025, where he was honoured as the outstanding Cuban competing abroad.
“Uno siempre dice que sí, pero la realidad hay que verla. Yo llevo apenas dos meses aquí y no he entrenado para apoyarlos. En otra oportunidad creo que habrá posibilidad, pero creo que no voy a poder.”
“You always say yes, but you have to look at the reality. I have only been here two months and I have not trained to help them. Another time I think there will be a chance, but I think I am not going to be able to.”
The same two names are on the same province’s list a year later — this time declared before the season rather than debated during it. Urquiola’s stated aim for 2026 is to reach the play-offs and finish in the top six, which would return Pinar del Río to the Liga Élite.
How to read the list on 4 October
Nothing announced so far indicates that either pitcher will be released by his Japanese club in time for the Cuban regular season, and neither Pinar del Río nor the federation has said they will be. On the evidence available, the sensible way to read the announcement is as a twelve-man pitching staff plus two names of honour, with any Moinelo or Martínez appearance — if it comes at all — a play-off question rather than an Opening Day one.
Two caveats apply to every provincial list published this month. All of them are provisional until the technical congress on 1 October ratifies the squads, and reported start dates have not been perfectly consistent: most outlets give 4 October, and at least one provincial paper has given 6 October. Our Serie Nacional 65 roster tracker records each province’s list as it is filed, and will be updated when the congress settles the calendar.
Sources
- JIT, “Pinar del Río busca regresar a la élite del beisbol cubano”, 15 September 2026 — official roster and coaching staff.
- Guerrillero, “Anuncian nómina oficial de Vegueros de Pinar del Río”, 15 September 2026 — full named roster, independently published.
- NPB official 2026 register — Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Yomiuri Giants pitching statistics.
- La Demajagua, “Revelan nómina de los Alazanes para la 65 SNB”, 18 September 2026 — Marcos Naranjo on Raico Santos.
- OnCuba, “Moinelo no estará con los Vegueros de Pinar del Río si llegan a la postemporada”, 24 December 2025 — Moinelo’s own comments.
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