Baseball notes: MLB-Cuba deal declared illegal

Aroldis Chapman is living the dream of hundreds of young Cuban baseball players. The New York Yankees closer is playing the game he loves and making more than a healthy living doing it at the highest level. It came at a cost, though, having to defect from his native Cuba and leave behind friends and family.

Chapman said Monday he is sad and feels bad for the young players who were hoping to pursue that dream through the deal that had been worked out between Major League Baseball and the Cuban Baseball Federation late last year. The Trump administration declared the agreement illegal, with the Treasury Department telling MLB attorneys in a letter Friday that it was reversing an Obama administration decision.

"It is definitely a sensitive topic, so many things behind it. Any time you are talking about baseball and politics, it's a very sensitive subject. But I just feel bad for those young ballplayers, who are probably not going to have the same chance to play here," Chapman said through an interpreter. "It's definitely difficult for a lot of Cuban players playing at this level here in the States. The way we got here was, it was tough, to say the least.

"I don't think it's definite yet. Just got to wait and see what happened."

The agreement, which is similar to the posting system MLB uses with players from Japan and other countries, would allow Cuban players to sign and play in the big leagues without having to defect or give up their Cuban citizenship. The MLB club would pay a 24 percent posting fee to the Cuban Baseball Federation, like it does to the Japanese clubs when signing their players.

The Trump administration said the federation is just an arm of the Cuban government in announcing their decision. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio called the payments "human trafficking."

"We stand by the goal of the agreement, which is to end the human trafficking of baseball players from Cuba," an MLB statement said.

Chapman indicated Monday that these are the types of tough choices Cuban players have to make.

"For those guys I mentioned before [back in Cuba], it's going to be tough. The opportunity is being taken away and some of them still want to play here at this level and unfortunately they might find themselves making difficult decisions on how to get here," he said.

• Yankees ace Luis Severino is returning to New York to have more tests on his injured right shoulder. Manager Aaron Boone said Severino isn't where he wants to be, and the team wants an examination to determine why he isn't progressing as expected. Severino has been out since March 5.

• Washington manager Dave Martinez plans to use reliever Trevor Rosenthal in "lower pressure situations" until the former All-Star closer has some success. Rosenthal is the first pitcher since 1995 to fail to retire any of the first nine batters he faced in a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.