Stream of Talent Continues to Flow From Cuba, With or Without Permission From coast to coast this summer, the major league baseball season has had a strong Cuban influence. In Los Angeles, the rookie Yasiel Puig helped spur the Dodgers to their remarkable midseason turnaround. Oakland's Yoenis Cespedes won the Home Run Derby with a dizzying display at Citi Field. And Jose Fernandez of the Miami Marlins has emerged as one of the best young pitchers in the game. Now, the slugging first baseman Jose Abreu is reported to have left Cuba, and he may soon be available to major league teams, the latest in a steady stream of talent heading to the United States. Since Cuba's Fidel Castro-led revolution, which ended in 1959, players have had to defect to play in the majors, and those who do are barred from returning to Cuba. For an island nation of 11 million people, each player lost is a blow to the relatively shallow talent pool of the domestic league, known as the National Series, and to the national team, the pride of Cuban sport. With more and more players leaving the country, the Cuban government tried an experiment this summer, allowing a player - Alfredo Despaigne, a 27-year-old outfielder considered by many to be the best hitter in Cuba - to compete in the Mexican League. In Cuba, athletes are amateurs, and Despaigne is believed to be the first Cuban star since Castro took over to be given permission to play abroad and earn a salary in the prime of his career. It is an effort to lift the flagging National Series - which stocks the national team - and help stem the tide of defections by loosening restrictions on players. "This is very important to us," the longtime Cuban baseball writer Sigfredo Barros said by telephone from Havana. Our players are not like Dominicans, who leave and come back home. The temptation to leave is very, very big. Whether this strategy can be effective remains in question. The size of the contracts signed by Cuban defectors, who are free agents and can sidestep Major League Baseball's draft, is staggering for those from a country where most live on about $20 per month. Puig signed for seven years and $42 million. Cespedes has a contract for four years and $36 million. Cincinnati signed Aroldis Chapman for six years and $30.25 million, and Jorge Soler, a 21-year-old outfielder, is in the Chicago Cubs" system with a deal worth $30 million over nine years. Once Abreu clears the requisite immigration hurdles, he could command more than $50 million on the open market. Fernandez left Cuba when he was 15 and was thus subject to the draft. Other factors have led to the increase in defections, including continued economic hardship in Cuba and relaxed travel regulations. The visibility of the success of the Cubans in the major leagues has been helped by improved Internet access across Cuba. Cuban players know they can thrive in the majors. Chicago White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez, who left Cuba in 2007, said, "When I first started playing, I didn't know about anything outside Cuba." Dayan Viciedo, an outfielder who signed with the White Sox after he defected in 2008, said that he was surprised when he learned of Despaigne's opportunity and that he hoped it signaled a change in government policy. "If guys can go play in Mexico or the Dominican or Venezuela and make some money, it could make a difference in the decision to come here," he said through an interpreter. Despaigne will keep 80 percent of his salary, with the rest going to Cuba's National Institute of Sport. Arrangements like that, Viciedo worried, may undermine any progress. "If the players are getting their full value, then it is a better deal," he said. Ramirez said money was only part of the equation. "The best league and the best players are here, not in Mexico," he said. Good players will always want to play against the best. In Mexico this summer, Despaigne played 33 games for the Piratas de Campeche and hit well, posting a .338 average with eight home runs. He is not the first Cuban permitted to play professionally elsewhere since Castro took power, but in the past, the privilege has been a reward after a successful career with the national team, Peter Bjarkman, of the Web site BaseballdeCuba.com, said. Pedro Lazo, the career leader in wins in the National Series, pitched for Campeche last season, and Orestes Kindelan, Antonio Pacheco and Omar Linares previously played in Japan. Despaigne was joined at Campeche by Michel Enriquez, a veteran infielder, and outfielder Yordanis Samon. Both were released soon after they arrived because of injuries and poor play. When Despaigne left for Mexico, there was concern in Cuba that he might not return, said Barros, the Cuban baseball writer. The fears were unfounded, although Despaigne has said that he was approached about defecting. Still, as evidence that the new policy will surely not be a cure-all, two members of the national team - in addition to Abreu - defected this summer: pitchers Odrisamer Despaigne and Misael Siverio. Barros would like to see more players return to Mexico next summer, and ultimately play freely in the United States, he said, because it would be a benefit for the players and the Cuban economy. For that to happen, Cuba would need to allow the players to travel, and the United States, in turn, would have to ease its embargo and the restrictions on taking money back to Cuba. "That would be better than Mexico," Barros said. It would be the best if our players could play in the United States and bring the money home. It would help everyone so much.