Spain will play in the WBSC Premier12 for the first time. The hosts of the Barcelona Qualifier beat Italy 5–2 on Saturday night, 10 October 2026, at the Camp Municipal de Béisbol Carlos Pérez de Rozas, and clinched one of the two places on offer with a game to spare. The night before, they had come from behind to beat Germany 3–2 in ten innings.
Cuban-born players did much of the work. Across the two games Spain scored eight runs, and six of them were driven in by Havana-born hitters: two by the captain, Omar Hernández, whose two-out single in the eighth tied the Germany game, one more by Hernández against Italy, and three by Félix Stevens. A Havana-born starter, Elián Leyva, opened the tournament, and a Matanzas-born reliever, Rubén Menes, struck out six Germans in two and two-thirds scoreless innings.
In September we reported that nine Cubans had been named in Spain’s squad, and that only three of them could be confirmed Cuban-born in MLB’s player database. A fresh check this weekend raises that to six. The detail, and a correction to that earlier piece, is below.
Two wins in two nights
The scores are from the official WBSC box scores and match worldbaseball.com’s game report.
| Date | Game | Result | Cuban-born contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday 9 October | Germany at Spain | Spain 3, Germany 2 (10 innings) | Omar Hernández two-out, two-run single in the 8th to tie 2–2 · Frank Hernández 3-for-4 · Leyva 6.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 K · Menes 2.2 IP, 0 R, 6 K |
| Saturday 10 October | Spain at Italy | Spain 5, Italy 2 | Stevens sacrifice fly (3rd) and two-run single (6th), 3 RBI · Omar Hernández RBI single (6th) · Frank Hernández 2-for-5 |
Friday: Germany 2, Spain 3
Germany’s two runs came on solo home runs by Yannic Walther and Finn Bergmann, both charged to Leyva, who worked six and a third innings on 83 pitches. Menes followed with two and two-thirds scoreless innings and six strikeouts, the longest and most dominant relief outing of the night. In the bottom of the eighth Omar Hernández, batting fourth and catching, tied the game with a two-out, two-run single. Spain won it in the bottom of the tenth on a wild pitch. Frank Hernández, Omar’s twin brother, had three hits.
Saturday: Spain 5, Italy 2
Against Italy, ranked 14th in the world to Spain’s 26th in the WBSC’s match report, the Spanish staff struck out 14. José Gómez, who pitches in Italy’s Serie A, started and struck out seven in five scoreless innings. Spain took a 2–0 lead in the third, the second run on a Stevens sacrifice fly, and broke the game open in the sixth: Omar Hernández’s infield single made it 3–0, and Stevens followed with a two-run single on the first pitch he saw. Carlos Sierra struck out the side in the ninth to finish it. “I’m proud to represent Spain,” Stevens told the WBSC afterwards.
The nine, checked again
Cuba Dugout counts a player as Cuban-born only when a record says so, and the arbiter we use is MLB’s own player database (the MLB Stats API), which covers the minor leagues and the winter leagues as well as the majors. On 22 September we found three of the nine there. Searching again on 11 October across every level, we found six whose records tie them to the Spain player by full name or a matching detail.
| Player | Position | Cuban birth in MLB’s database | Qualifier line, 9–10 Oct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omar Hernández | Catcher / left field | Yes — b. 10 December 2001, La Habana (Royals system since 2019; Triple-A Omaha in 2026) | 3-for-8, 3 RBI |
| Frank Hernández | Outfield | Yes — b. 10 December 2001, Havana (Cubs system 2021–2024) | 5-for-9, 2 R |
| Félix Stevens | Outfield | Yes — b. 30 July 1999, Havana (Cubs system 2019–2025, reached Double-A) | 1-for-8, 3 RBI |
| Elián Leyva | Pitcher | Yes — b. 17 March 1989, Havana (Braves system 2018–19, Triple-A Gwinnett) | 1 GS, 6.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K |
| Rubén Menes | Pitcher | Yes — b. 17 April 2002, Matanzas (Cardinals system; High-A Peoria in 2026) | 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K |
| Pablo Luis Guillén | Pitcher | Yes — b. 21 June 1998, Villa Clara (Venezuelan winter league 2020, 2023) | Did not pitch in the first two games |
| Carlos Sierra | Pitcher | Not tied — a Cuban-born Carlos Miguel Sierra (b. 1994, Cabaiguán; Astros system 2016–18) is in the database, but nothing in the record links him to Spain’s reliever | 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 K (final three outs v Italy) |
| Royd Hernández | Pitcher | No record | 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB |
| Dayán González | Pitcher | No record | Did not pitch in the first two games |
How the six are tied. Omar and Frank Hernández share a birth date and the maternal surname Ruiz, matching CiberCuba’s account of twins who arrived in Spain together in 2013. Stevens’s record carries the maternal surname Cañizares, as on the WBSC box score. Menes’s carries Gómez, also as on the WBSC box score, and worldbaseball.com separately describes Spain’s Menes as a Matanzas-born Cardinals prospect. Guillén’s gives Villa Clara, matching CiberCuba and worldbaseball.com, which call him a 28-year-old from Cuba. Leyva was already confirmed in September.
Carlos Sierra is the near miss. There is a Cuban-born pitcher of that name in the database, but nothing in his record connects him to the Spain reliever, so we do not count him. Royd Hernández and Dayán González have no record to check.
What it means for Cuba
Spain join a 16-team Premier12 in 2027. Cuba is already in it: it was one of the twelve nations that took automatic places through the WBSC world ranking, as we set out in September. The tournament also carries two direct places at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, one for the best-placed team from Europe or Oceania. Spain’s route to Los Angeles now runs through the same tournament as Cuba’s, with a squad that includes at least six men born on the island. Whether the two meet depends on a draw that has not been made.
The second Barcelona place was being settled on Sunday, 11 October, in a one-game playoff between Italy and Germany. Spain close the round robin against Colombia on Sunday evening. Cuba’s own autumn schedule, from the U-23 World Cup to Baseball5, is in our national-teams calendar, and the record season for Cuban-born major leaguers is in Cubans in MLB 2026.
A correction to our September piece
Our 22 September article said that six of the nine had no MLB record at all. That was wrong for Frank Hernández, Guillén and Menes, who all have minor- or winter-league records with Cuba as the birth country. Our search then did not cover every level. We have added a dated correction to that article.
What we did not print
CiberCuba calls this the largest group of Cuban players Spain has ever selected, and names a Cuban-born coach on the staff. We have not printed either claim, because we found no second source for them. We have also not called Sierra, Royd Hernández or Dayán González Cuban-born, for the reasons above.
Sources
- WBSC official box scores, Germany v Spain (game 203878, 9 October 2026) and Spain v Italy (game 203880, 10 October 2026).
- WBSC, “Spain beat Italy, punch WBSC Premier12 ticket” and “Spain punch first ticket for WBSC Premier12 2027” (10 October 2026); “Germany strike first, Spain come from behind…” (9 October 2026).
- worldbaseball.com, “Spain beats Italy 5-2 to reach the Premier12 for the first time” (10 October 2026) and “Spain announces roster for Premier12 qualifier” (20 September 2026).
- CiberCuba, “Nueve peloteros cubanos integran la selección de España para el Clasificatorio al Premier 12” (8 October 2026), citing Pelota Cubana.
- MLB Stats API, player records for Omar Hernández (683427), Frank Hernández (693746), Félix Stevens (685474), Elián Leyva (673140), Rubén Menes (808048) and Pablo Luis Guillén (698866), checked 11 October 2026.
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